Vintage Art Deco Quilts

Century of Progress

Aurora See Dyer

When outlining posts on Art Deco I initially despaired of being

able to include any vintage Art Deco quilts.

But then I remembered I have notebooks full of them

--- all inspired by the 1933-4 Chicago Worlds Fair.

I got interested in the quilt contest at the fair because I had quite a collection of souvenirs from that event. Above the fair logo, a comet representing the Star Arcturus.

A tiny coin purse

A belt buckle

The two-season fair was the source of

uncountable inexpensive knick-knacks,

which used to cost a quarter at thrift shops

Inspiring Merikay Waldvogel and I

 to write a book on the quilt

contest sponsored by Sears.

The Spectrum

Edith Morrow Matthews

The huge cash prizes attracted thousands of entries,

many of them quite moderne.

Detail of quilt by Emma Mae Leonhard

showing a Century of Progress in fashion

Collection of the International Quilt Study Center

and Museum

Sears issued a call for a special category of

quilts commemorating A Century of Progress,

the fair's theme. Quilts expressing the theme were

eligible for a bonus prize.

This was the heart of the Great Depression

and the cash prizes were huge.

Progress

Linda and Clarence Rebenstorff

Many of the quiltmakers looked to

the fair's advertising for inspiration.

Progress meant up-to-date modernism.

The posters are

classic Art Deco

as was the architecture.

 The Ford Building 

A General Motors LaSalle in the most modern of showrooms.

An enormous Studebaker.

Century of Progress

Anna Hansen

The architecture inspired several quiltmakers

to include the moderne Sears display building.

Quilting showing the first European settlement in Chicago

and the 1933 skyline

in a silk quilt in the collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum

Unfortunately, all that Art Deco creativity in the quilts was misdirected.

Sears issued the call for modern quilts

but did not choose judges who appreciated modernity.

Judges at the National Contest

They chose as prize-winner a reproduction of a mid-19th-century quilt

in up-to-date colors of Nile green.

Merikay and I wondered what might have

happened if an Art Deco quilt had

won that influential contest.

Would quilt design have taken a different direction

in the 1930s?

See my post on the contest winner:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2013/02/online-shopping-drama.html

Garden Kaleidoscope

Mayme Helman Barnfield

Merikay has written about the contest extensively for the Quilt Index Gallery pages.

Click on the links for lots more:

http://www.quiltindex.org/essay.php?kid=3-98-3B

http://www.quiltindex.org/galleryFullRecord.php?kid=3-98-72

Here are the prizewinners:

http://www.quiltindex.org/galleryFullRecord.php?kid=3-98-73 

On the gallery page scroll down to Sears contest to see various gallery photos with comments by Merikay.

http://www.quiltindex.org/galleries.php