The Quilters Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana

In a town known for basketball and as the birthplace of James Dean, perhaps the best-kept secret is the Quilters Hall of Fame. The inspiration for the Hall of Fame was the woman who owned the house, Marie Webster. Marie was born in nearby Wabash, Indiana, in 1859 and died in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1956. During her most productive quilting years, from 1911 to 1921, her quilt patterns were published in Ladies' Home Journal, which was the leading women's magazine at the time. She ran a successful mail-order pattern business, designed new patterns, wrote Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them, lectured, and judged quilting competitions. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991. Quilts made by hand can take dozens or even hundreds of hours to complete, depending on their size. A basic guideline for designing a quilt is to follow the “Rule of 7.” This calls for using seven different fabrics when designing a quilt. These can range from larger-scale theme prints and coordinating fabrics down to smaller-scale accents and anchors. The house holding the quilters' collection is known as the Marie Webster House. It was built in 1902, and when completed, Marie and her husband, George…

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