Design for trapunto or stuffed work
Judges & the 1st Prize winner at 1933's Chicago World's Fair
Final Judges: Sue Roberts of Sears, Anne Orr and Mary McElwain, quilt pattern designers, and Beth Burnett of the Art Institute of Chicago. The stuffed work leaf quilted in the spaces between the stars must have impressed them.
Stuffed work quilting is unusual. One place we see more of it is in the hills of Tennessee, Kentucky and places settled by women coming from those states.
Kentucky silk star in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
attributed to sisters Ellen Norton Littlejohn and Margaret Morton Bibb,
made before the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation when the
Mortons were enslaved in Logan County.
So far two silk trapunto quilts are attributed to the women, the second is in the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian.
And we see variations on the quilting design in other quilts before the prizewinning quilt pattern was published by Mountain Mist in the mid-20th century.
Mountain Mist batting wrapper showing their Star of the Bluegrass
When the Caden sisters commissioned a quilt for the contest they must have decided on a typical Kentucky design. Margaret Caden, whose name was on the entry, did not make the prizewinner but hired contract needleworkers to do the stitching, etc. and never shared credit or cash with them.
It's not only the hired quilting that is indicative of Kentucky regional design but the star design seems to be too. Stars pieced of diamonds seem among the most common of quilts. But I'm surprised to find this particular arrangement is rather uncommon---before the 1933 contest.
Stella Rubin's Inventory
Corner of a mid-19th-century quilt with BlockBase pattern #3772: Four diamonds in each star point,
an uncommon pattern at the time. Such stars usually had 9 diamonds or more per point.
The Morton sisters quilt at the Smithsonian also is a star with four diamonds. The Met's has the more common arms of nine diamonds.
Silk quilt from the Eyestone family in the Illinois State Museum, last half 19th century.
Donor's mother lived in Kentucky.
After publicity about the winner in 1933 one finds many stars with a four-patch of diamonds in each point, some made from the popular Mountain Mist design.
Copy of the winning quilt by Elizabeth Nesbett Cooper of Crawfordsville, Indiana.
That new green shade was hard to find so she made good use of black.
Stuffed-work sampler by Virginia Ivey at the Speed Museum in Kentucky.
Corner of the Russellville Fair quilt by Virginia Ivey at the Smithsonian
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2026/08/kentucky-regional-design-33-fair.html
https://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2017/08/star-of-bluegrass.htm
https://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2017/08/star-of-bluegrass.htm
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2013/02/online-shopping-drama.html
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_556181
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/13884
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_556181
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/13884
What I finding so interesting in my research of regional designs in Ky quilting is that a motif or design that we see in mid 19th KY quilts (especially in the use of trapunto) is not only seen in various regions of the state but also continues well into the 20th century. The feathery leaf you describe is one such very popular mothif- as you point out, the winning quilt of the Sears Contest utilized it. Another design that I see with some regularity is an unscrolling feathered "fern" like element. It looks like a fiddle head fern unfolding. I've seen it in various regions but particularly in Wayne County and the small town of Monticello. The use of the fern dates back to documented quilts from the 1850s and well into the late 20th century. It was particularly popular with the quilters in the Conn family of Monticello. Velma Conn, who passed away in the 2000s, was known for her ability to draw it freehand and use the leaf and fern motf regularly.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the fern leaf quilting pattern offered by Sears Roebuck in the booklet “Sears Century of Progress in Quilt Making” , I believe my grandmother Mary Gasperik quilted this pattern into 21 different quilts , making it almost the signature element used by this master quilter , whose quilt making career began because of the Sears contest and Chicago Century of progress worlds fair of 1933-34.
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