With feed sacks front and center in our first exhibition of the New Year, we are presenting this stirring piece as our Quilt of the Month this February. 

This quilt is entirely constructed from repurposed feed sacks. The front is comprised of tobacco sacks; 100-pound sugar sacks were used for the back. The tobacco sacks were hand-dyed, and some faint printing on the backing is still visible today. Belied by its lack of batting, this quilt is deceptively heavy. 

Sarah Dorthula Hooper Taylor (1862-1940) crafted the quilt after having five children in middle Tennessee. Though many details are unknown, genealogical research shows Taylor was connected to a farm and poor asylum in Chetham County where her husband was employed. Around the time the quilt was created, Taylor's husband became a patient of the asylum after a "nervous disorder" and later drowned in the Cumberland River. 

This quilt (front and back) is on display as part of "Feed Sacks: An American Fairy Tale" now showing in the West Gallery until July 27.