Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, or Hexagon quilt, unknown maker from the United States

Artwork Overview

Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, or Hexagon quilt
Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, or Hexagon quilt
Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, or Hexagon quilt
circa 1825–1850
Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, or Hexagon quilt , circa 1825–1850
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: quilting; chintz; piecing; cotton
Credit line: William Bridges Thayer Memorial
Accession number: 1928.0926
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 earliest published quilt pattern yet found in America shows how to make this design, called hexagon, six-sided and honey-comb patchwork in an 1831 girls’ magazine. Another early name was recorded in an 1856 novel describing “Job’s troubles, that is to say, innumerable bits of red, yellow and varicolored calico, cut in hexagonal form…” In the 1930s the pattern was revived as Grandmother’s Flower Garden. The unknown quiltmaker used an indigo blue calico to create consistent “paths” in her garden. For the border she cut a green furnishing print into strips. The chintz features flowers arranged in striped sets between architectural columns hung with bouquets. These “pillar prints” reflect American fascination with classical design in the early nineteenth century.

Exhibitions

Quilts: Flora Botanica
Barbara Brackman, curator
Susan Earle, curator
2008
Contemporary & Traditional Quilts at the Spencer Museum of Art
Barbara Brackman, curator
1991
Beauty of the Frontier: American Patchwork Quilts from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1988
Beauty of the Frontier: American Patchwork Quilts from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1988
Beauty of the Frontier: American Patchwork Quilts from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1987
Beauty of the Frontier: American Patchwork Quilts from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1987
Beauty of the Frontier: American Patchwork Quilts from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1987
Beauty of the Frontier: American Patchwork Quilts from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1987–1988
Beauty of the Frontier: American Patchwork Quilts from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1987
Quilters' Choice: Quilts from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1983
Quilts from Kansas
1981
Quilts from the Museum Collection
1978

Citations

American Patchwork Quilt. Tokyo: Kokusai Art, 1987.

Quilters' Choice: Quilts from the Museum Collection. Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, 1978.

Brackman, Barbara. Flora Botanica. Kansas City, Missouri: Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

Salmon, Larry, and Eldredge, Charles C. 150 Years of American Quilts. Lawrence, Kansas: The University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1973.