Calendula quilt, or Allen Rose, or variation of the Democrat Rose Variation quilt, Rose Frances Good Kretsinger

Exhibition Label:
"Quilts: A Thread of Modernism," Aug-2005, Debra Thimmesch and Barbara Brackman
In 1930 Rose Kretsinger told a newspaper reporter she was working on her fifteenth quilt, this one copied from an antique owned by the family of Senator Henry Allen of Topeka. The quilt appears in her records as both the “Allen Rose” and “Calendula,” a reference to an herb with orange and yellow flowers. The design is traditional, a combination of stylized florals sometimes called the “Rose of Sharon,” but the balance, border and quilting mark it as Rose Kretsinger’s unique style. In the book she wrote with Carrie Hall she described the colors as “canary yellow, orange and mustard green,” a color combination that owes more to the Bauhaus than the Pennsylvania Germans.

She also noted that the “interlaced ring patches and the border are original designs.” The border with the buds curling over the vine suggests the spatial illusion and use of line characteristic of Art Nouveau, one of Kretsinger’s primary influences.

A professional quilter did the actual quilting, as with many quilts of the day. The unknown quilter did an excellent job, managing eleven stitches to an inch, counted on the top. Rose designed the feather quilting based on traditional style and added extra stuffing. After the quilting was finished, she poked small pieces of cotton through the backing fabric with a large needle. The tiny scars are still apparent behind each stuffed design.

Rose’s quilts won many state and local prizes, but Calendula won her a national reputation in 1942 when it took second place in the quilting category of Woman’s Day magazine’s National Needlework Exhibition.