Lollipop Flowers & Trees

 

Traditional applique was often very stylized with shorthand indications of florals. The eight-lobed flat flower with a circle in the center is the classic 19th-century applique. Circles or dots usually stood for a fruit as in the bowl here.

Appliqued quilt

Estimated date 1840-1880

Here we have fruit in the border and flowers with five-lobed florals in the inner wreath.

The imagery in 19th-century applique has a lot to do with Pennsylvania-German folkarts.

Where flowers are similar

Here's a painting dated 1835

And one from 1825 with four-lobed flowers.



Pieced quilt with an appliqued border

Estimated date 1840-1860

from Laura Fisher Antique Quilts

 

We see these flowers used in many ways by quilters.

Tree quilt

Estimated date: 1850-1900

Collection: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

 

 

I looked through files of applique quilts and didn't notice any significant groups of flowers made just from circles. Circles seem to stand for fruit as in the tree above or maybe buds.

 

Here's an 1849 New York sampler from an online auction with a few simple trees.

Sara Keplar 1851

Collection: Colonial Williamsburg

Notice the fruit trees in the border.

 

See more about this quilt by going to the Colonial Williamsburg webpage and typing Keplar in the quick search box:
http://emuseum.history.org/code/emuseum.asp

 

 

When Karla and I were looking for inspiration for our Juniper and Mistletoe sampler we found most of the trees in mid-19th-century borders.

 

 

The idea of plain circles or concentric circles as flowers does not seem to be a 19th-century idea. I looked through my Encyclopedia of Applique and didn't find any lollipop flowers from old samplers or 19th-century newspaper patterns.

 

But in the 20th century, pattern designers started simplifying the basic flat floral, creating lollipop flowers.

See a post with more about this quilt kit and the ditsy flower here:

 http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/02/modern-quilts-style-change-and-ditsies.html

 

This pattern is not in the Encyclopedia of Applique and I don't know the designer. But I did find several other lollipop flowers designed in the 1930s. I took some bad snapshots of the sketches in the index.

 

 

Geranium from the Aunt Martha company in the 1930s

On the page of Miscellaneous Bouquets are several from the Chicago Tribune's quilt columnist in the 1930s Nancy Cabot. Her real name was Loretta Leitner and she did a lot of modernized designs---most of which nobody ever made.

But it's not too late.

 

Certainly lollipop flowers are hot today. Do a websearch for the terms:

lollipop flower quilt

 

And see what comes up.

Here are two I found:

http://guildcrafters.wordpress.com/2007/05/13/chez-moi-lollipop-quilt/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinfibers/4968634478/in/faves-38727119@N08/

 

So the short answer to the question: What is the history of lollipop flowers? It's a short history and we are right in the middle of it now.