Morning Glory quilt, Ifie Espey Arnold

Exhibition Label:
"Quilts: A Thread of Modernism," Aug-2005, Debra Thimmesch and Barbara Brackman
This quilt is one of a pair that Ifie (Eye’-fee) Arnold stitched for her daughter, Iras Arnold Armour, whose monogram she added. The central lattice and flower resemble an appliquéd and embroidered coverlet published in McCall’s Needlework magazine about 1927. The pattern indicated that the lattice, embroidered in the original, would be placed with what might be viewed as the top of the lattice at the bottom of the bed.

The border, which was not in the magazine pattern, reflects the organic shapes and sinuous line that define the Art Nouveau style so popular in Europe from about 1880 through the 1920s. Art Nouveau’s influence on American quilts tends to be fairly minimal, but quilters in Emporia, Kansas, often incorporated European design ideas such as curling tendrils and overlapping shapes into their borders. The trendsetter in Emporia was Rose Good Kretsinger, who graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and designed jewelry there before returning to Kansas about 1915. We can guess that Ifie and Rose, who were good friends, collaborated on this design.

Ifie May Epsey was born in Illinois and moved as a young woman to Ashland, Kansas, where she married Frank Arnold. They homesteaded a claim, weathered the drought of the 1890s and prospered in the cattle business. In 1914 they moved to Emporia, where Frank established a bank.