Monday, January 25, 2010

Antique Rose Quilt

I was just going through some old Quilter's Newsletter Magazines, sorting to get ready to take to a sale this weekend. One cover caught my eye, June 1984. The info says "Antique Rose, ca. 1935 made by Lillian Whiting Shirer of Topeka Kansas. Quilt from the collection of Marie Shirer. The pattern for the quilt is on pages 22-23.



This quilt made me think of a quilt by Rose Kretsinger that I saw in Lawrence Kansas at the Spencer Museum of Art in September 2008. Not quite the same but very similar. Rose was from Emporia Kansas. Lillian and Rose must have shopped for their patterns at the same place. I don't have the date for this quilt, but pretty sure it is the same time period as the one on the Quilter's Newsletter. Sorry my picture is so bad and I could not find the quilt on the The Quilt Index. http://www.quiltindex.org/index.php. This quilt is pictured, in black and white, on page 240 of "The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America" by Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger.



In the January/February 2010 McCall's Quilting on page 36-39 is a very similar quilt.
This is designed by Robert Callaham. If you don't have a copy here is their web address and it shows a picture of the quilt. It is called "Antique Rose".

http://www.mccallsquilting.com/issues/January_February_2010

I'm sure there are lots more patterns similar to these. Copied from an even early time period. Now I'll be looking for this pattern in the 19th Century quilts. Fun!

3 comments:

  1. Lynn -- thank you for visiting my blog -- I can see that we have a lot in common.

    Have you seen the book "American Patchwork Quilt" which was published in 1987 (in English and Japanese) when the entire Spencer Museum quilt collection was sent to an international quilt exhibit in Japan. The book contains beautiful, detailed photos of the Antique or Democratic Rose mentioned in your post above, and many other Kretsinger quilts. Although the book has been out of print for some time, I managed to find a copy in a used book store.

    You can also find photos of the Kretsinger quilts on the Spencer Museum of Art web site here:

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

    Here is a quote from the book about this quilt:

    The Kretsinger family's hired girl inherited fragments of her grandmother's quilts that had burned in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Rose Kretsinger reproduced one of the damaged antiques in this quilt which is among her first. The pattern, popular with Victorian quiltmakers, is often called Democrat Rose, the name given it in Rose Kretsinger's records. When she included a photograph in her book she called it Antique Rose (possibly to avoid offending Republican voters). It appeared in a 1949 magazine under the name Old Spice Pinks.

    In this copy of an old design she was faithful to the style of earlier seamstresses. Her major change was in the color scheme; orange and black are rare in 19th century applique. The quilting, like that in most of her quilts, was probably done by a professional quilter to Rose's specifications. The stitches are not so fine as in some of the later quilts, but from the beginning, her quilting designs are lovely."

    This is certainly the longest comment I have ever made. I'm very happy to have discovered your blog and look forward to reading more posts.

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  2. I found your blog very interesting. Hope that you will post more soon. It will be fun to lean more about vintage quilts.

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  3. From my collection -Here is a more funky freeform c.1860 version of the rose of sharon.
    http://utahquiltappraiser.blogspot.com/2009/01/whig-rose-or-rose-of-sharon-quilt.html
    Enjoy.
    Sandra Starley

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