Marie Webster, born in Wabash, Indiana, graduated from high school there in 1878 and married George Webster, Jr. of Marion in 1884. On April 21st, 1902, George and Marie Webster moved into their new home at 926 South Washington Street in Marion. A ground breaking quilt designer of the early 1900s, Marie began making applique quilts in 1905 and, unable to find a pattern she liked, designed one of her own. She sent the quilt to Ladies Home Journal, where editor Edward Bok invited her to submit more designs for a full color page. Her Iris, Snowflake, and Wind Blown Tulip quilts appeared in the January 1, 1911 edition and were viewed by one and a half million women, making her a national celebrity. The demand for her patterns soon had her filling orders from her home in Marion. While creating new designs, she also researched and wrote Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them, published in October 1915, becoming the first person to write a history of quilts. As the quilt revival gained momentum after World War I, she expanded from patterns to selling kits, basted quilts, and finished quilts, and in 1921 her cottage business became the Practical Patchwork Company. She remained active in the business until her retirement in 1942. Her floral applique designs, created at the height of the Arts and Crafts Movement, are still widely appreciated and imitated today, and her legacy remains one of Marion's great assets through the Webster home, which serves as the International Quilters Hall of Fame, with traveling quilt exhibits shown yearly from March through December and quilt enthusiasts and historians gathering in Marion each July for hall of fame inductions, workshops, and seminars.