Which metaphor is more accurate? a quilt or a melting pot?

america is an improbable idea. a mongrel nation built of
ever-changing disparate parts, it is held together by a notion, the notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves better than someone. “of all the nations in the world, the united states was built in nobody’s image,” the historian daniel boorstin wrote. that’s because it was built of bits and pieces that seem discordant, like the crazy quilts that have been one of its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks and brocades. out of many, one. that is the ideal.