QUILT INDEX RECORD

12-8-3968

Who documented this quilt?

Michigan Quilt Project; Michigan State University Museum Collection

Where are the records for this quilt housed?

Michigan State University Museum

Michigan Quilt Project Number:

89.0116

If this quilt is owned by a museum, enter the accession number:

6950.1

Object label:

Cherry Quilt
The Quilter's of St. Mary's Church
Lake Leelanau, Leelanau County, Michigan
1989
Collection of Michigan State University Museum acc.#6950.1

Essay:

The Quilters of St. Mary's Church in Lake Leelanau have worked as a group since the 1920s. Both quilting and church participation were long-established practices in the county. Many area quilters gathered neighbors to help them finish their quilts; they often made two identical quilts, donating one to the church and keeping the other for family use. Originally drawn together at these all-day quilting bees, members of The Quilters of St. Mary's Church learned piecing and quilting as young girls from mothers and grandmothers who were among Leelanau County's first white settlers.

Organized as a quilting group around 1928, St. Mary's Quilters met weekly in members' homes at first, later in the Lake Leelanau school, then in the church basement. In the 1950s and 1960s, the group numbered more than 40 active members, and their weekly meetings frequently needed three quilting frames to accommodate all the workers. An average quilting meeting took several hours and included a potluck meal. Occasional card games served as respites from the painstaking, precise needlework, and one member recounted that quiet afternoons of quilting were highlighted when tiny, elderly Martha Plamondon perched on a stool and sang Polish and American songs.

Members of St. Mary's Quilters estimate they have made more than 1,000 quilts for raffles or as door prizes for a variety of parish functions in the last 60 years. Many of their quilts incorporate appliqued designs featuring cherries, the major crop of the region. Although age and the increase in the number of women who need to work outside the home have diminished their number in recent years, the quilters still actively pursue their quilting and provide a source of income for parish and school. Their quilts are well known in the county, and their familiar Cherry Quilts are available for sale to the public every spring. Today as in the past, The Quilters of St. Mary's Church concentrate their efforts on producing functional quilts--warm washable bed covers intended for daily use.

In 1989, the Quilter's of St. Mary's Church received a Michigan Heritage Award.

Owner's name for the quilt:

Cherry Quilt

Name of the group that made the quilt:

Quilters of St. Mary's Church

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

Purchased the quilt

Where the quilt was made, city:

Lake Leelanau

Where the quilt was made, county:

Leelanau

Where the quilt was made, state:

Michigan (MI)

Time period:

1976-1999

When was the quilt started?

May 1989

When was the quilt finished?

1989

Quilt is presently used as:

Museum collection

Quiltmaker's gender:

Group

Quiltmaker's city:

Lake Leelanau

Quiltmaker's county:

Leelanau

Quiltmaker's state:

Michigan (MI)

This is a:

Finished quilt

How wide is the quilt?

88"

How long is the quilt?

101"

Quilt's condition:

Excellent/like new

Where did the maker find their pattern?

Original to maker

Exhibitions where this quilt was displayed:

Festival of Michigan Folklife, East Lansing, MI, 1989, Michigan State University

Source of the information on this quilt:

Museum employee

Ownership of this quilt is:

Public- Michigan State University Museum

Quilt owner's name:

Michigan State University Museum

Quilt owner's city:

East Lansing

Quilt owner's county:

Ingham

Quilt owner's state:

Michigan (MI)

How was this quilt acquired?

Purchase

Access and copyright information:

Restricted

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

Made entire quilt

If the source helped design the quilt, describe their input:

Designed the pattern

Who photographed this quilt?

KEVA

Copyright holder:

Michigan State University Museum