QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Sunday, July 4, 2021

Kentucky Cherry Tree Quilts #3

 

In the last two posts we looked at Cherry Tree quilts found
in Kentucky.

Here is a third:

Also in the collection of Louisville's Speed Museum

Quilt attributed to Virginia Mason Ivey (1828-? )
Logan County, Kentucky. About 1860
Speed Museum of Art

Virginia's quilt has three of the cherry trees plus
three others arranged around a central bouquet.
The stuffed-work quilting is impressive and note
the feathers outlining the vine border.


The Speed Museum is well aware of the similarities between
the Ivey quilt and the Emma Bridges quilt with their grape borders and stuffed quilting.

The stuffed work quilting in Virginia's includes a 
"Statue of Henry Clay," Kentucky's favorite Whig.

Clay died in 1852 and a similar statue was erected in New
Orleans about 1860, possibly Virginia's inspiration.

Virginia Mason Ivey (1828-?), photo from
the 1840s when she was in her teens, perhaps.
Smithsonian Collection

Virginia Ivey is well-known for a whitework, stuffed quilt in the collection of the National Museum of American History/Smithsonian.

The Russellville Fair Quilt, 1856
See this quilt by clicking on the thumbnail at the Smithsonian site:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_556355


In the center circle just inside the fence that encloses the fair's livestock
showing area are words:
"A REPRESENTATION OF THE FAIR GROUND NEAR RUSSELLVILLE KENTUCKY 1856"

Russellville Fair

Henry Clay Quilt
Virginia observed animals closely as the details of her applique
and quilting show.

The Russellville Fair quilt was a 1949 gift from niece Lillian Virginia Lewis who knew a quite a bit about the quilt and her aunt.

Read more about Virginia at this post:




What to make of three Kentucky Cherry Tree Quilts from three different counties?
I'm sure I'll have it figured out by tomorrow.

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