North Carolina Lily quilt, Grandmother of Willis C. McEntarfer

Artwork Overview

North Carolina Lily quilt, Grandmother of Willis C. McEntarfer
North Carolina Lily quilt, Grandmother of Willis C. McEntarfer
Grandmother of Willis C. McEntarfer
North Carolina Lily quilt
circa 1840–1860
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
Credit line: Gift of Willis C. McEntarfer
Accession number: 1973.0120
Not on display
Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

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.