March 2020 quilt of the Month - Famous Women Friendship Quilt

Every month, the International Quilt Museum in Nebraska, USA, chooses a quilt of the month.  This month, it is the Famous Women Friendship Quilt.  

From the website:

Made by multiple makers

Quilted by Essie Lawson
Circa 1978
United States
96.75 x 85 inches
246 x 216 centimeters
Hand appliquéd, machined appliquéd, embroidered, hand quilted
Mountain Mist Collection, Gift of the Robert and Ardis James Foundation

This quilt features the winning blocks of a 1978 contest for the batting company Mountain Mist. The quilt was used in advertising and exhibited throughout the United States.

The rules for the contest instructed entrants to: 
“Design and make a preshrunk 12” x12” (finished size) square showing your choice of a famous woman and / or her accomplishments... Winning squares will become the property of Stearns & Foster Co, and will be sewn together into the Famous Women Friendship Quilt.” 

The Mountain Mist quilt contests began in 1974 and continued through 1988. Early contests were block contests; later on, entrants had to enter a quilt.

This quilt previously appeared in the 2016 exhibition "Inside the Wrapper: The True Tales of the Mountain Mist Quilt Patterns," guest curated by Linda Pumphrey.

I couldn't read all of them, but some of the women depicted include Laura Ingalls Wilder, Betsy Ross, Eleanor Roosevelt, Abigail Adams, Sakajewea, Mary Cassatt, Emily Dickenson, Harriet Tubman, Grandma Moses, Eve, Louisa May Alcott, Juliette Gordon Low, Beatrix Potter, Florence Nightengale, Janet Guthrie, Beverly Sills, Clara Barton, Elizabeth I, Helen Keller, Mary, Madame Curie, and Amelia Earhart.