North Carolina Lily quilt

Grandmother of Willis C. McEntarfer, artist

died circa 1865–1875

North Carolina Lily quilt, circa 1840–1860

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: appliqué; piecing; quilting; cotton

Dimensions:
Object Length/Width (Length x Width): 84 3/4 x 85 in
Object Length/Width (Length x Width): 215.9 x 215.26 cm

Credit line: Gift of Willis C. McEntarfer

Accession number: 1973.0120

Not on display

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Exhibition Label:
"Quilts: Flora Botanica," Jun-2008, Barbara Brackman and Susan Earle
The grandmother of the donor used the favorite fabrics of the mid-nineteenth century quiltmaker to create a geometric design echoing the stylized triple florals of traditional Germanic ornament and earlier Persian and Indian imagery.

Her block is known in today’s quilt lexicon as North Carolina Lily, a name that really doesn’t reflect where the quilts were made. In 1929 Ruth Finley published a romantic if dubious story that cast the name in print: The “lily in its migration from coast to coast acquired eight different names, evidently bestowed in honor of the wild lilies native to each region….It was called ‘The North Carolina Lily’, all through the South except in Kentucky and Tennessee were it was known as ‘The Mountain Lily….”

Finley’s inspiration was a wildflower native to the southeastern woodlands. The Carolina Lily (lilium michauxii) is a spotted orange flower similar to what Kansans call tiger lilies.