QUILT INDEX RECORD

12-8-3813

Who documented this quilt?

Michigan Quilt Project

Where are the records for this quilt housed?

Michigan State University Museum

Michigan Quilt Project Number:

96.0052

Owner's name for the quilt:

Kansas Sunflower

Quilt top made by:

Drake, Rhoda Stanton

Other people who worked on this quilt:

Her daughter had it completed by the quilting group.

Name of the group that made the quilt:

United Methodist Women of the Lakeside Muskegon Church

If you are a relative of the quiltmaker, how are you related? The quiltmaker is my:

Quilt owner

If you are the quilt owner, how did you acquire this quilt?

Received as a gift

Where the quilt was made, city:

Breckenridge

Where the quilt was made, county:

Gratiot

Where the quilt was made, state:

Michigan (MI)

When was the quilt started?

1936

When was the quilt finished?

1986

Quiltmaker's gender:

Female

Quiltmaker's city:

Breckenridge

Quiltmaker's county:

Gratiot

Quiltmaker's state:

Michigan (MI)

Quiltmaker's maiden name:

Waggoner

Quiltmaker's birth date:

1878

Quiltmaker's date and place of death:

1955

Quiltmaker's ethnic background/tribal affiliation:

Pennsylvania Dutch

Quiltmaker's educational background:

Breckenridge High School, Yerrington College, St. Louis, MI

Quiltmaker's religious affiliation:

United Methodist

Quiltmaker's occupation:

Housewife and mother, embroidery and other fancy work

Quiltmaker's father's name:

Waggoner, Lemuel

Quiltmaker's father's ethnic/tribal background:

Pennsylvania Dutch

Quiltmaker's mother's name:

Stanton, Mary Jane

Quiltmaker's mother's ethnic/tribal background:

Pennsylvania Dutch

Quiltmaker's spouse's/spouses' and/or partner's/partners' occupation:

Physician and surgeon

Number of children:

1

How many of the quiltmaker's children were girls?

1

How did the quiltmaker learn to quilt?

From Relative

When did the quiltmaker learn to quilt?

Age 11-19

Why does the quiltmaker quilt?

Gifts

Other notes on how the quiltmaker learned, and how and why they quilt:

During the Depression and during the war (WWII) gave quilts to younger woman in Sunday school class who married.

Does/did the quiltmaker sell quilts?

no

Does/did the quiltmaker teach quilting?

only informally

Where does/did the group meet?

At the Methodist Church in Breckenridge

This is a:

Finished quilt

How wide is the quilt?

62 1/2"

How long is the quilt?

88 1/2"

Quilt's condition:

Excellent/like new

Number of quilt blocks:

5

Arrangement of quilt blocks:

Straight

Spacing of quilt blocks:

Alternating with plain squares

Fiber types used to make the quilt top:

Cotton

Piecing techniques used to make the quilt top:

Hand Piecing

Materials used to make the back:

Cotton

Number of pieces of fabric in the quilt back:

2

What kind of filling is used in the quilt?

Cotton

How are the layers held together?

Hand quilting

Number of quilting stitches per inch, place 1:

5 1/2

Number of quilting stitches per inch, place 2:

6 1/2

Quilting designs used, background fills:

Parallel lines

Describe the quilting designs used:

Outline/Ditch

Where did the maker find their pattern?

Commercial/Published source: Newspaper

Commercial name of the pattern for the top:

Probably from Detroit Free Press

Exhibitions where this quilt was displayed:

Muskegon County Museum, Muskegon, MI; Muskegon Lakeside Methodist Church; Howe Memorial Library, Breckenridge; Great Lake Regional Herb Society Symposium, Hillsdale; Shelby, White Lake & Montague, MI; House Tours, from 1973 to present; Poetry Society of Michigan & Canada. Visitors of the Poetry Society of this state were on tour. During Michigan Week in May, annually on the day of the Mayor Exchange Day. Village officials and visitors have been out since 1975 with two exceptions: two years they were unable to set up a mayor exchange day. Old School & Village Reunion. Held in August, biannually and later upon request. Muskegon Writers; Muskegon Women's Literature and Drama Department; Church Groups;Methodist Women's Society; Rachel Circle; Mary Martha Circle; Two youth groups; New membership groups; Questors Collectors on home tours 1973-1996

Publications (including web sites) where this quilt or maker was featured:

Photo of quilt collector; Photos of quilter

Ownership of this quilt is:

Private

Quilt owner's name:

Margaret Drake Elliott

Quilt owner's city:

Breckenridge

Quilt owner's county:

Gratiot

Quilt owner's state:

Michigan (MI)

How was this quilt acquired?

Gift

Describe anything about the history of the quilt that wasn't already recorded in a previous field:

Kansas Sunflower, this quilt top was made by Rhoda in 1936 during the presidential campaign of Alfred Landon (F.D.R.) Apparently he lost the election. It was landside, unfinished.

Access and copyright information:

Restricted

How did the quiltmaker participate in the creation of the quilt?

Made entire quilt top

Describe any favorite patterns, tools, etc. used by the quiltmaker:

Rhoda frowned on machine work on her quilts (She did them all by hand).

Describe any unique traditions, quilting related customs, beliefs, songs or rhymes used by the quiltmaker:

Pennsylvania Dutch girl could make her bridal quilt after she had 12 in her hope chest

Copyright holder:

Michigan State University Museum