Americana Sampler
Designed and made by Liz Porter and Marianne Fons
Quilted by Luella Fairholm
Winterset, Iowa, 1991
Cotton; machine and hand pieced, hand appliquéd and reverse appliquéd, embroidered, painted, hand quilted
Gift of Marianne Fons
IQM 2015.039.0001

Marianne Fons and Liz Porter co-authored the Quilter’s Complete Guide, a comprehensive how-to manual published in 1993. The Guide is one of the best-selling, most widely used instructional quilting guides ever published, selling over a half million copies. They published revised editions in 2000 and again in 2019. The Americana Sampler quilt includes an example of each block for which the manual includes instructions.

The Fons & Porter brand became one of the best known in the quilting industry, and has influenced an entire generation of quiltmakers. As Marianne Fons & Liz Porter stated on their long-running PBS television program, Love of Quilting, “Our goal is for you to enjoy making quilts as much as we do.”

The Americana Sampler quilt is featured in the International Quilt Museum's upcoming exhibition, Fons & Porter, on view in the Von Seggern and Beavers galleries from October 15, 2021 - February 26, 2021.