QUILTS IN AN ENVELOPE
Marie Webster sold her quilt pattern packets from 1911 until 1942 from her home in Marion, Indiana. For 50 cents, a price that never increased in the course of 30 years, customers received a brown envelope containing a photo of the quilt, brief instructions, and several fabric samples. Each packet included a blueprint for the applique pieces and several full-size, colored-tissue-paper placement guides. Webster’s Practical Patchwork Company was a cottage industry that employed friends and family. Her sister, Emma, made tissue-paper guides, her son, Lawrence, drew the blueprints, and her husband, George, answered correspondence when she traveled.
Windblown Tulip was one of the first quilts by Webster to be published by Ladies’ Home Journal in January 1911.
Tulip Quilt Blueprint
Loaned by Rosalind Webster Perry.


The Webster logo.
Webster logo
 

Marie Webster c. 1905.
Portait of Webster
Indianapolis Museum of Art.

MARIE WEBSTER (1859-1956) built a modern business on the traditional women's work of quilting and moved it into the commercial marketplace. Webster introduced the new Arts and Crafts aesthetic to quilt design, substituting themes from nature for traditional geometric patterns. She sparked a resurgence in quilt making while developing her designs into a lucrative business.

Webster was a latecomer to entrepreneurship, founding her company in midlife. She had led a conventional life as a wife and mother, and did not embark on her business venture until her children were grown. She then sent one of her quilts to Edward Bok, editor of Ladies' Home Journal. One of the most popular women's magazines, the Journal actively promoted Arts and Crafts ideals in the United States. Impressed with Webster's work, Bok published her quilt designs in the January 1911 issue. They were an immediate success, creating a demand for her patterns. Like Ellen Demorest before her, who introduced paper dress patterns in the 1840s and 1850s, Webster began producing colored-tissue-paper patterns. With her family she launched her quilt pattern business. Marshall Field's department store in Chicago displayed her quilts, furthering the demand, and Ladies' Home Journal asked her to design new quilts for the magazine. Webster expanded the business, founding the Practical Patchwork Company in 1921. Her product line included boxed cloth kits, basted quilt tops, and fully completed quilts of her design.


A REVOLUTION IN QUILT DESIGN
Poppy, made in 1909, was Marie Webster’s most influential quilt. Its elegant central design revived the medallion style popular in the early 19th century. Webster’s designs were influenced by the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts movement, which rebelled against mass production and elevated craftsmanship. Webster’s aesthetic was inspired by the forms of nature.
Webster Poppy Quilt
Indianapolis Museum of Art, on loan from the Collection of Rosalind Webster Perry.

Webster skillfully promoted herself through women's magazines, mail-order catalogs, and department stores. Her book on the history of quilt making elevated a women's craft to an art form and created a new field of scholarly inquiry.
Portrait Photo at top — Marie Webster, c.1916, in "early American" costume inspired by the colonial revival of the early 20th century. Webster wore this outfit when delivering lectures. Rosalind Webster Perry.