Missouri Quilt Museum

06/18/2026

06/17/2026

Have you ever used a toy sewing machine in a project? Please share pictures!

Toy sewing machines began being created in the 1880s in Germany as both educational toys and marketing tools. These taught and entertained children while their mothers shopped or sewed.

The Missouri Quilt Museum has over 600 different toy sewing machines ranging from fully functional toy treadle machines to merely decorative machines.

Come learn about these fascinating machines at the Missouri Quilt Museum!

06/15/2026

New weekly challenge! Here's the first challenge, and the first clue. . . .

06/12/2026

We're excited to share about a new Museum Challenge! Each Monday we'll hide a chip like this one somewhere in the museum, and whoever finds it throughout the week will be gifted a prize.

This incredible leather bag will be our first prize. Ready for the challenge? Come and visit!

06/09/2026

Just another sneak peek at our raffle for September 19th. Such a beautifully refurbished 1946 Singer Featherweight!

Tickets are available now for only $10 each: https://www.missouriquiltmuseum.com/product-page/1946-singer-221-1-cherry-red-featherweight

What are your favorite things about Featherweight machines? Please share!

06/08/2026

Have you heard of or ever made a Quilt of Valor?

The Quilts of Valor Foundation works to create quilts that are beautiful, patriotic, and fully pieced and quilted to gift to veterans who have served God, family, and country and bring them comfort and healing.

We have several of these beautiful quilts here at the Missouri Quilt Museum, with stories and histories behind them.

06/04/2026

This is an 8-head embroidery machine—one of the first!

A piece of fabric would be clamped in each hoop, and then a roll of paper punch tape would be fed through the machine that would make each piece of clamped fabric move in unison as the machines sewed.

Once the stitching was finished, the eight pieces of fabric would be unclamped, all with matching embroidered designs. A pretty cool system!

What's something you have embroidered recently?

06/02/2026

This quilt was the dream of a teenager named Glenna. She wanted to make it for a 4-H project in the 1980's, so she planned it out, cut out fabric blocks in the shape of each county, and then shipped each block to a different 4-H member across Missouri.

Each person used embroidery and appliqué to create a block that represented what their county was known for, then they mailed those blocks back to Glenna, and she pieced them together before getting help from friends to do the final quilting. She also filled in 12 spots where the blocks were never sent back.

The final result looks amazing!

What is an inspirational quilting story in your family? Please share!

06/01/2026

The Elna Sewing Machine Company revolutionized sewing machines fo innovations such as free-arm sewing machines and durability.

This machine was purchased in 1956 and carried home on the back of a motorcycle. It sewed clothing, quilts, bags, and more for three generations before finding it's way to the Missouri Quilt Museum.