Michigan Sesquicentennial Sampler Quilt
General Henry Dearborn Quilting Society
1987
Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan
Cotton
77” x 95”
MSUM 7604.1; Gift of the General Henry Dearborn Quilting Society
Photo by KEVA, all rights reserved Michigan State University Museum

The General Henry Dearborn Quilting Society, a quilt guild that produces fundraising quilts for the General Henry Dearborn Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, made this quilt to celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of Michigan’s statehood in 1987. Each block, signed by a guild member, represents an aspect of Michigan’s natural or cultural history. Pictorial blocks include the state’s official bird (Robin), tree (White Pine), and fish (Brook Trout). Other patterns, some of which can by found in Betty Boyink and Milly Splitstone’s Michigan Quilters and their Designs (1983) are Michigan Beauty, Michigan Indian Arrows, “M” Block, and Little House in the Big Woods.