Twelve Quilts of Christmas – #7

From the Williamsburg website:

“This is an almost square white cotton bed quilt appliquéd with cottons in red, green and yellow and stuffed in a four-block format. The design consists of four large floral vases (positioned on the center field with two right side up and two upside down). Each vase has two handles and a large abstract group of tulips, leaves and red berries cascading over the sides of the vases. Two red and brown birds perch within each spray of flowers. All the berries are stuffed or padded. The border on all four sides consists of pots of flowers with floral and leaf elements growing horizontally from the pots. It is quilted in 9 running stitches per inch in triple parallel lines on the diagonal and appliquéd with blind stitches. Chain stitches are used on some stems and birds legs. It is dated on reverse in outline stitch with the date “1862”. It is bound in the same green cotton that was used in the vases and foliage and backed with white cotton.”

A quilt similar to this one appears on page 242 of Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger’s book The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in American (New York, 1935), and the pattern is identified as “Pride of Iowa”.   Barbara Brackman points out in her book, Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Applique, that this quilt block (Brackman 41.552 T Pride of Iowa) was likely an original 19thC design.  And likely a very popular one, as I have seen several variations.  There is a similar quilt in the collection of the Shelburne Museum, at Old Sturbridge Village and also in the Winedale Museum in Texas.

If you want to play around with different colourations, there is a colouring page available on the Shelburne Museum website here.

I have always loved these four block appliqué quilts and their delightful borders.  I love even more the version Gwen Marston did (see photo below), taking her favourite elements from quilts like this one and paring this type of design down to perfection.  Gwen loved studying antique quilts, but this design of hers is all her own. I love all the little idiosyncrasies that she added!

What elements would you chose, from the antique quilt above, to include in your version?