Noelene's Reproduction Quilt

Rose Good Kretsinger, New Rose Tree, 1929

Collection of the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art.

Gift of Mary Kretsinger, #1971.0103

Two or three years ago I ran into an Australian quilter Noelene McGuren who was in Lawrence, Kansas to visit a quilt exhibit at the Spencer Museum of Art. She fell in love with this quilt by Rose Kretsinger and determined to make a copy.

She has sent me photos of her progress.

The applique didn't take too long at all.

It was the hand quilting....

Nolene McGuren, Lawrence Joy, 2010

She finished it in July and named it after her trip to Lawrence.

She wrote: I tried to get it as close to the original as possible, I entered it in the Victorian Quilt Show and won runner up in the Traditional section. I hope to hand it down to the next couple of generations. I hope they appreciate the work.

We certainly do.
See pictures of the original New Rose Tree in the Spencer Museum of Art by clicking on their search page.
http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/search/

Do a search for 1971.0103
And see another of Noelene's quilts by clicking here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/onedayinjanuary/3765192537/in/set-72157617239743017/

Rose's quilt is pictured in my book Flora Botanica, a catalog of the show that inspired Noelene. You can purchase it from the Spencer Museum Book Shop by clicking here:
http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/~sma/cgi-bin/pubs.pl?bookid=311

And Beth mentioned one by Mary Shafer that you can see by clicking on this Quilt Index link:
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1E-3D-119D

Emporia Rose

Emporia Rose

Model for Common Threads Quilting

Waxahachie, Texas

Laura from Common Threads sent a photo of the shop model they made for their Block of the Month of the Emporia Rose quilt pattern that I designed several years ago.

 

Attached is our Emporia Rose. The woman who does our quilting is amazing, and I hope you can see it in this picture. The program has been really popular. We only have 5 spots left before we won't have the fabric to support it anymore.

 Ribbon winner by Betty Thayer, Saginaw, Michigan. I found her version on the web.

Years ago Karla Menaugh and I published the pattern in our Sunflower Pattern Co-operative line, but it's sold out. We sent the last to Common Threads for their Block of the Month.

Emporia Rose by Cindy Korb

I know, I know, we ought to republish it someday, but publishing is in such a state of change right now, we are kind of stuck between centuries. Paper or digital? Self-publish or Commercial...

Cindy's was on display at the Spencer Museum of Art a few years ago next to a quilt by Rose Kretsinger.

Rose lived in Emporia, Kansas and drafted patterns for her friends.

Spice Pink by Charlotte Jane Whitehill of Emporia,

in the collection of the Denver Art Museum

 I redrew several blocks for a sampler of Emporia design.

Emporia about 1920

Oriental Poppy by Rose Kretsinger

in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art

Tomato Flower by Charlotte Jane Whitehill of Emporia,

in the collection of the Denver Art Museum

Links:

Subscribe to Common Threads Block of the Month and get one of their last few kits.

http://webstore.quiltropolis.net/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Store_id=541&page_id=23&Item_ID=7093

Go to the Spencer Museum of Art's Search page and do a search for Kretsinger to see more of Rose's quilts.

http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/collection/

And see another post I wrote about Rose by clicking here:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/12/rose-kretsinger-pattern.html



More Inspiration from Rose Kretsinger

Oriental Poppy by Rose Kretsinger, about 1930.

Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art.

Rose and daugher Mary about 1915

I have a pattern for the Oriental Poppy that I drew up for a class I taught a few years ago. Here I am holding blocks by Denniele Bohannon and Gloria Clark.

Below is Gloria's in progress.

She's working on the border.

Oriental Poppy by Gloria Clark

Rose's had simple swag and flower border.

Charlotte Jane Whitehill who lived in Emporia also made one from Rose's pattern

 but she used a different border, a double scallop.

Oriental Poppy by Charlotte Whitehill, about 1930.

Collection of the Denver Art Museum.

I decided to make one and update the colors

Oriental Poppy by Barbara Brackman and Pam Mayfield.

I hand appliqued it and Pam added the sawtooth border and machine quilted it.
I did not do the reverse applique.

Inspired by Rose Kretsinger

Orchid Wreath by Rose Good Kretsinger, 1929,

 Emporia, Kansas, collection of the Helen F. Spencer Museum of Art.

Rose Good Kretsinger created some of the most remarkable 20th-century quilts. I've been working on patterns for friends and students for several years interpreting her designs.

I am crazy about iris in all their varieties so I adapted the Orchid Wreath into an Iris Wreath.

 For her Iris Wreath Lori Kukuk used the pattern that's in my book Making History: Quilts and Fabrics from 1890-1970. She machine quilted it with her typical amazing quilting.

Ilyse Moore is working on a version on a black background.

Here's another interpetation of the Orchid Wreath using lilacs on the cover of Jennifer Chiaverini's book.

I blogged about Rose Kretsinger a few months ago and someone asked where they could read more about her. At the bottom of this posting is a bibliography of print and online sources.

Here's the blog posting about her Antique Rose quilt.
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2009/12/rose-kretsinger-pattern.html

A Bibliography of Information about Rose Kretsinger

Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger, The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1935) Read her chapter on quilting for her ideas and designs.

Some online information:

http://www.pbs.org/americaquilts/century/time/emporia.html

http://www.quiltershalloffame.net/index_files/Page994.html

See her quilts at the Spencer Museum of Art (plus jewelry by her daughter and some of her influences)

http://collection.spencerart.ku.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalSearch&module=collection&fulltext=kretsinger

Jonathan Gregory has studied her life extensively
Jonathan Gregory, "The Joy of Beauty: The Creative Life and Quilts of Rose Kretsinger," Uncoverings 2007 (Vol. 28) from the American Quilt Study Group. Click here to buy a copy of that issue.
http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/UCDetail.asp?ID=28

The International Quilt Study Center & Museum has posted a podcast of his lecture:
"An Aesthetic Life: the Story of Quiltmaker Rose Kretsinger." Presented March 6, 2009. View it by clicking here:
http://www.quiltstudy.org/connections/resources/podcasts_video.html

I have written about her in several publications

Kansas Quilts & Quilters by Jennie Chinn et al. Chapter by Barbara Brackman---
"Emporia 1925-1950: Reflections on a Community"

Quilters Hall of Fame, Editors Merikay Waldvogel & Rosalind Webster Perry. Chapter by Barbara Brackman---"Rose Kretsinger"

Flora Botanica: Quilts from the Spencer Museum of Art by Barbara Brackman, contains short essays on two of her quilts. Read more here:
https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1090

Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper by Barbara Brackman, contains short chapter on her. Read more here:
https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=441

And read more about my book Making History with the Iris Wreath pattern by clicking here.
http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1212
Scroll way down to the bottom of the page and click on the Google book preview to read the first chapter on late 19th century quilts.

Rose Kretsinger Pattern

Rose Kretsinger was one of the 20th century's great quilt designers. Most of her work is in the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. I have volunteered there for years to help with the quilts. In 2008 we put a few of her quilts in an exhibit called Flora Botanica. One was her "Democrat Rose", also called the "Antique Rose", dated 1926.

I was surprised to see a pattern for Rose's rose in the January/February issue of McCall's Quilting. Rose Kretsinger's quilt is on the left, the model in McCall's on the right. Rose adapted a traditional pattern that is usually rather free and sprawling.

Traditional Democrat Rose Block

She modified it to make it formally symmetrical. Careful repetition of the flowers was one key, but the most important innovation was a sashing with two flowers appliqued in each strip, creating a circular wreath design that catches the eye.

You really can't make Rose's design in a block. You have to combine the block and the sashing. The magazine pattern shows you just how to do it.

McCall's Quilting editor and the author didn't realize the pattern was by Rose Kretsinger. They are going to give her a credit in the next issue. But now you know it's a Kretsinger design. You'd better buy the magazine as Kretsinger quilts are not often patterned. Click here for more information about it:

http://www.mccallsquilting.com/articles/Antique_Rose

And click here for more information about the catalog picturing Rose's quilt, Flora Botanica: Quilts from the Spencer Museum of Art.  https://www.pickledishstore.com/productDetail.php?PID=1090

McCall's patterning a Rose Kretsinger quilt and not giving her credit is just karma. In the 1920s Rose redrew a McCall's Magazine pattern and didn't give them any credit. Below on the left: a McCall's pattern for an appliqued and embroidered design called "Trellis". On the right: a quilt in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art by Ifie Arnold called "Morning Glory". Ifie was a friend of Rose's and it is likely that Rose designed this quilt for her. Ifie made a pair of them.