Dahlia Wreath quilt, Susan Black Stayman

Exhibition Label:
"Quilts: Flora Botanica," Jun-2008, Barbara Brackman and Susan Earle
This appliquéd quilt must be the other of the pair of “fancy patch quilts of entirely original design” that won acclaim at the 1866 Kansas State Fair. The needlework is certainly exceptional with quilting measuring 12 stitches to an inch (measured on the top of the quilt). Quilters are usually content with eight or nine stitches per inch.

Stayman looked to folk art traditions where this flat, eight-lobed shape has long represented the rose, a powerful cultural symbol. The name Dahlia Wreath is from the family. Other published names are Wreath of Roses and Kentucky Rose.

Stayman’s concept of original design probably differed from ours. Hundreds of similar quilts survive. Within folk art’s strict boundaries she created small innovations, for example, the specific arrangement of 32 leaves on each wreath and the border geometry, a clever pattern of modular arcs forming a running vine.