Fantasy Fascinator

Art

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The National Quilt Museum

Name/Title

Fantasy Fascinator

Made/Created

Artist

Teresa Schulz

Place

City

Lansing

State/Province

Michigan

Country

United States

Continent

North America

Interpretative Labels

Label

Fascinators are ornamental headpieces that became very popular among fashionable flappers in the Roaring Twenties. The extravagant use of feathers, flowers and beads to decorate these “hats” reflected the high spirits of the young women of the era. This particular woman wears a fanciful fascinator from which some of the adornments are beginning to fall off.

General Notes

Note Type

Techniques Used

Note

This quilt was machine pieced and machine quilted on a vintage Kenmore, with the exception of one hand-sewn applique and minimal hand quilting on the face. All embroidery was done by hand. Every block in this quilt is the same "old favorite" known as the “drunkard's path” – one in which the radius of the quarter circle equals the side of the square (in the vernacular – “maximum pie and minimal crust”). The only differences among the blocks in this quilt (besides color) are their sizes – there are hundreds of 1” x 1” blocks, scores of 2” x 2” blocks, about a dozen each of 3”x3” and 4”x4” blocks, and a few 4”, 5”, 6”, 8” and 9” square blocks. Since so many of the smaller blocks are nested inside larger blocks (which themselves are nested in even larger blocks), it was way too confusing for me to accurately count how many of each size are in the quilt; hence the estimates.

Note Type

Materials Used

Note

Overall mostly cotton fabric and cotton thread, some shiny fabric (headband), tiny pieces of wool felt (eye iris), cotton embroidery floss and some gold metallic thread.