Quilt from the Massachusetts Project and the Quilt Index,
private collection.
The chintz in the corners of this elegant star quilt is familiar
to fans of large-scale floral prints.
The documenters at MassQuilts noted that the "calla lily motif" appears
in several other quilts. See the white calla lily in the center part of the floral.
Callas are also called arum lilies.
I think this quilt in a private collection when
documented is now in the collection of the Shelburne Museum.
It is very similar to a star in the Poos Collection...
with the same print in the corners. Kay Triplett calls it Calla Lily, Iris, Primrose and Parrot Tulip We thought those were iris until Terry Terrell identified them as Mexican shell flowers. The tulip is falling out of the arrangement.
Looks like an iris but it is a Mexican shell flower.
Jeana Kimball has a block signed Elizabeth Singleton 1844
Elizabeth Dahle's star, found in the Maryland quilt project,
uses the print in the north/south triangles.
See a post about the print in the corners here:
The Orlofsky book Quilts In America pictured a star from the The Brooklyn Museum
with the chintz yardage in the edges.
This may be the most popular print of all with chintz quilt makers
in the 1840s.
Notice the same floral arrangment in the top row (left of center) in this
cut-out-chintz album/sampler sold at Pook & Pook Auctions. Tulip's been
trimmed off.
An 1842 block from Burlington (New Jersey?)
signed Amanda ???. I think this may be from
Donna Stickovich's collection.
Dated 1843 - 1844
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
IQSCM # 1997_007_0479
International Quilt Study Center & Museum owns several quilts with the print, including two with
Queen Victoria commemoratives. The one above has much of the bouquet in each of the corners. Note the Mexican shell flower is on its own in a smaller block.
The other features the full bouquet. You soon learn
to look for the meandering shell flower. It's all alone in border block.
Here's the full bouquet in the center of a medallion from a Thomaston Auction
Anna Catherine Garnhart used the calla and the tulip under
the eagle in one of her quilts in the collection of the DAR Museum.
Mary Rooker Norris had a lot of scraps that she used in her medallion, also in the DAR collection. I see the tulip and the shellflower marching along. https://eyeonelegance.dar.org/node/57
International Quilt Study Center & Museum
#1997.003.0306
11 of the floral arrangments!
How many yards?
Is that the same border stripe as in the Shelburne's
star at the top of the page?
The Victoria & Albert has a piece---but I digress.
Victoria & Albert Museum collection
This is the only photo I've found of the yardage. It has a fancy machine ground.
What was to the left and right?
Maybe nothing.
I realize now I've been thinking like a 21st-century fabric designer and
not a 19th-century cylinder print designer. This may be all you got: One repeat with selvages
on either side fitting onto a narrow roller machine. Perfect for drapes, valances...
Julia Lawrence Hasbrouck's diary of a day of sewing in New York City.
"Tuesday. October 19. 1840. Raining still. Sent for Miss McFarlow She cut their green merino coats for the children. G. and I wash the mantel Lamps. I mended all the stockings. Cut out two sets of valens [sic] 12 yds each from new chintz. "
Her diary is in the collection of New York's Stone Ridge Library.