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Leaf and Vine ; Leaf and Vine (Blue); Blue Leaf with Blue Birds, Leaf Quilt
CITE THIS QUILT

QUILT INDEX RECORD
18-14-43
Description:
One of three quilts adapted from quilt kit Homeneedlecraft Creations kit #7182 Decorator's Quilted Spread. The three bluebirds are a Nancy Cabot (Chicago Tribune) pattern; and the elaborate quilted vase of fruit and flowers in the quilt center is from an as-yet-unidentified source. It appears on four other Gasperik quilts.
Essay:
The owner of this quilt, grand-daughter Karen Finn, believes that she remembers there was a fourth Gasperik Leaf and Vine quilt in Gasperik's house, now disappeared. Grand-daughter Susan Salser speculates that Gasperik may have intended this blue leaf and vine quilt to be a wedding anniversary quilt for her daughter Elsie, just as she gave the pink version (#013) to her son Elmer as a wedding anniversary gift. Gasperik did give this quilt directly to Elsie, but Elsie herself didn't regard it as a wedding quilt and didn't seem to like it very much. Elsie preferred other, in her view less sentimental, quilt designs.
Where are the records for this quilt housed?
Mary Gasperik Legacy Project
Who documented this quilt?
Mary Gasperik Private Collection
Gasperik Legacy Project Number:
061
This is a:
Finished quilt
Quilt's title:
Leaf and Vine
Owner's name for quilt:
Leaf and Vine (Blue)
Names for quilt's pattern in common use:
Blue Leaf with Blue Birds, Leaf Quilt
How wide is the quilt?
84 inches
How long is the quilt?
93 inches
Shape of edge:
Scalloped
Describe the edge:
top and bottom are straight.
Shape of corners:
Other
Describe the corners:
Scalloped right and left sides; straight edges at top and bottom.
What color is the quilt?
Blue or Navy; Gray; Pink; White
Overall color scheme:
Light or pastel colors
Quilt's condition:
Excellent/like new
Type of inscription:
Date
What is inscribed on the quilt?
1944
Method used to make the inscription:
In the quilting
Location of inscription:
other
Describe where the inscription was found:
above the pink bow at the top of the quilt
Time period:
1930-1949
When was the quilt finished?
1944
Family/owner's date for quilt:
1944
Date estimated by an antique dealer, quilt historian or appraiser:
1944
Who estimated the quilt's date?
Merikay Waldvogel
Further information concerning dates:
The quilt is based on a 1940s Homeneedlecraft Creations kit #7182.
Describe the quilt's layout:
Vertical bands
Spacing of quilt blocks:
Side by side
Fiber types used to make the quilt top:
Cotton
Fabric styles used in the quilt top:
Print; Solid/plain
Describe the fibers or fabrics in the quilt top:
applique pink bow is not cotton
Applique techniques used to make the quilt top:
Hand Applique
Embellishment techniques used to make the quilt top:
Embroidery
Materials used to make the back:
Cotton
Materials used in the quilt binding:
Cotton
What is the width of the binding (measure on the top only)?
less than a half inch
What kind of filling is used in the quilt?
Cotton
How are the layers held together?
Hand quilting
Color of thread used in the quilting:
white
Can you see any knots on the front or back of the quilt?
no
Quilting designs used, overall motifs:
Grid/crosshatch; Grid square; In-the-ditch; Single parallel lines
Quilting designs used, decorative motifs:
Feathering; Floral; Other
Quilting designs used, background fills:
Grid/crosshatch; Parallel lines
Describe the quilting designs used:
The elaborate basket of fruit and flowers quilted into the very center of this quilt is found on 4 Gasperik quilts: #009, #016, #024 and #061. It is from an unknown source. The scale and elaborateness of this quilted vase is reminiscent of commercial applique flower basket block patterns widely available in the 1930s and 1940s. Doves of Peace, triple-leaf ferns, quintuple-leaf ferns, double-leaf ferns, large arched feathers, a feather crown, and a large v-shaped feather unit are embedded into background quilting which is itself executed in varying scales.
Features or notes about the quilt's appearance, materials, or construction:
This quilt sports a pink ribbon at the top of the quilt and three hovering bluebirds with pink flowers in their beaks. Gasperik made 3 quilts based on Homeneedlecraft Creations kit #7182: #013 (which bears the quilted year 1944), #024 (undated) and this quilt, #061 (which also bears the quilted year 1944). Joanne Gasperik speculates that the order in which these were made is: #061 first, then #013 and, finally, #024. Her reasoning is that #061 used at least some kit supplied fabrics (and thus provided patterns for making the subsequent versions). Further, the bottom flower of #061's wreath (like the commercial kit) has only one stem connecting it to its wreath, creating a kind of asymmetrical gap. In the other two versions a second intertwined stem is added to connect the bottom flower to both ends of the wreath, an effort to provide graceful symmetry to the kit. [Note: all 3 Gasperik quilts differ from the kit by connecting the flower at the TOP to both sides of the wreath.] Quilt #013 was given to Elmer Gasperik and his wife Doris as an anniversary present (for a wedding which took place in 1944). Their daughter, Kathy Jacob, believes that the quilt may have been given to them as late as 1946. This makes it likely to have been finished after #061. Quilt #024, the most elaborately quilted of the 3, and the one bearing what appears to be a UN emblem wreath, is probably a post-war quilt, and the culmination of Gasperik's experimental renderings of kit #7182.
Quilt top made by:
Gasperik, Mary
Quilted by:
Gasperik, Mary
Where the quilt was made, city:
Chicago
Where the quilt was made, county:
Cook County
Where the quilt was made, state:
Illinois (IL)
Where the quilt was made, country:
United States
How was this quilt acquired?
Inheritance
Tell the story of how the quilt was obtained:
Selected by Karen when Elsie's three daughters divided their mother's quilts.
Why was the quilt made?
Art or personal expression
The quilt was made to be used for:
Bedding, special occasion
Quilt is presently used as:
Keepsake/memento
Describe present uses of the quilt:
Mary's grandchildren regard her quilts as a unique collection to be preserved and appreciated.
Where did the maker get their materials?
Purchased new
Where did the maker find their pattern?
Commercial/Published source: Kit
Describe the source of the pattern:
Trio of bluebirds is a Nancy Cabot (Chicago Tribune) pattern.
Commercial name of the pattern for the top:
Homeneedlecraft Creations kit #7182 Decorator's Quilted Spread
Where did the quiltmaker find the pattern for the quilting design on the quilt?
Original to maker
Describe where the quilting design pattern was found:
Dove of Peace copied from Carrie Hall page 74, Plate XII, No. 7, Romance of the Patchwork Quilt.
What is the commercial name of the quilting design used for this quilt?
Fern pattern C5573 from Aunt Martha's Answer to 'How Shall I Quilt It?'
Describe anything about the design of the quilt that wasn't already recorded in a previous field:
The quilt is personalized, as are its mates - Gasperik quilts #013 and #024. This one has an elaborate pink tafetta bow and 2 extra flowers and leaves appliqued at the top. The three bluebirds bearing pink flowers, appliqued at the bottom, are also a Gasperik addition to the kit.
Gasperik chose here to substitute a shallowly scalloped side border for the straight side border of the kit and two other Gasperik versions of it.
In a graceful improvement to the kit design, Gasperik added a second vining stem connecting the two ends of the wreath, as she did on all her versions of this quilt.
Where the kit orients the four vertical rows of appliqued leaves to point downward, Gasperik points them upward.
Gasperik appears to have altered the Aunt Martha quilted border part of pattern #C5573 to create a chain of triple (rather than double) fern leafs.
It is possible that Gasperik used fabrics provided in blue and grey version of Homeneedlecraft Creations kit #7182 to make this quilt. But it is clear that she both added and substituted some fabrics to increase the number of flowers in the wreath. The kit wreath calls for 11 flowers. All three Gasperik versions have 15 flowers in the wreath, and this one adds two additional flowers at the top. Gasperik substituted print fabric for some of the kit's flower petals. Comparing this Gasperik quilt with an actual Homeneedlecraft Creations kit #7182, Susan Salser and Karen Finn concluded that Gasperik did not use the kit-supplied background material, which is "cream" (rather than white) and intends for two panels with stamped markings for the leaves, to be attached to either side of the center panel which bears the wreath. The Gasperik quilt uses a single width of white, not cream, fabric. In sum, it is difficult to determine, even with a Gasperik quilt which seems to match kit-supplied materials, the exact degree to which Gasperik in fact used the kit materials and the degree to which she substituted her own. What is clear is that the quilt is a mixture of both.
Exhibitions where this quilt was displayed:
The Quilts of Mary Gasperik, Ravenswood Historic Site, Livermore, CA, March 14-15, 1992.
Contests entered:
Probable entry in Illinos State Fair
Publications (including web sites) where this quilt or maker was featured:
Merikay Waldvogel and Barbara Brackman. Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, (Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1993)102-103.
Merikay Waldvogel "One American Dream Comes True", Quilters Newsletter Magazine, March 2008, 46-49.
Related items such as diaries, obituaries, wills, household inventories, or pictures of the quiltmaker:
Kit envelope - Homeneedlecraft Creations kit #7182 Decorator's Quilted Spread. Includes blue, white and grey stamped fabrics. Susan Salser - private collection.
Nancy Cabot Bluebird pattern. See Brackman Applique #52.15.
Newspaper clipping (unidentified source and date) from collection of Merikay Waldvogel showing a block quilt called Bluebird and a single block applique #494, the pattern for a single flying bird bearing the flower in its beak. The byline is Nancy Cabot.
Three separate yellow paper exhibit tags reading:
1) "Leaf Quilt First Prize at Springfield, Mrs. Mary Gasperik"
2) "Leaf Quilt First Prize in Springfield given to Doris Gasperik as a first anniversary gift, by Mrs. Mary Gasperik" - this tag would have been attached to quilt #013)
3) Leaf Quilt First Prize at Springfield. Given to Daughter Elsie Krueger. by Mrs. Mary Gasperik" - this tag would have been attached to quilt #061.
Ownership of this quilt is:
Private
Quilt owner's name:
Karen Krueger Finn
Quilt owner's country:
United States
Person filling out this form is:
Relative of quiltmaker; Author/researcher
If you are a relative of the quiltmaker, how are you related? The quiltmaker is my:
Grandmother
Describe the relationship to the quilt's maker:
Grand-daughter Susan Salser began this research effort in 1991, after she and her two sisters divided up the quilts which belonged to their mother (Elsie Gasperik Krueger) who died in 1988. Her ongoing research has been fruitful and interesting.
Quiltmaker's maiden name:
Mihalovits, Maria
Quiltmaker's gender:
Female
Quiltmaker's birth date:
01/25/1888
Quiltmaker's birthplace, country:
Hungary
Quiltmaker's marriage date(s):
11/18/1906
Quiltmaker's date of death:
05/25/1969
Quiltmaker's ethnic background/tribal affiliation:
Hungarian
Quiltmaker's educational background:
Elementary School
In which kind of environment did the quiltmaker live?
Rural
Quiltmaker's city:
Chicago
Quiltmaker's county:
Cook
Quiltmaker's state:
Illinois (IL)
Quiltmaker's country:
United States
Quiltmaker's father's name:
Mihalovits, Istvan
Quiltmaker's father's birthplace:
Hungary
Quiltmaker's father's ethnic/tribal background:
Hungarian
Quiltmaker's mother's name:
Mihalovits, Vidoszava
Quiltmaker's mother's birthplace:
Hungary
Quiltmaker's mother's ethnic/tribal background:
Hungarian
Quiltmaker's spouse's/spouses' and /or partner's/partners' name(s):
Gasperik, Stephen
Quiltmaker's spouse's/spouses' and/or partner's/partners' ethnic/tribal background:
Hungarian
Quiltmaker's spouse's/spouses' and/or partner's/partners' occupation:
Milk Dealer/Grocery Store Owner/Butcher
Number of children:
3
How many of the quiltmaker's children were girls?
1 (Elsie 1909-1988)
How many of the quiltmaker's children were boys?
2 (Elmer and Stephen)
How did the quiltmaker learn to quilt?
From guild or club member; Self-Taught
When did the quiltmaker learn to quilt?
Age 40-49
Why does the quiltmaker quilt?
Pleasure; Other
Other notes on how the quiltmaker learned, and how and why they quilt:
This quilt (like its sister quilts: #013 and #024) is an experiment in transforming commercial Homeneedlecraft kit #7182. Mary Gasperik made quilts because it was her life passion and greatest talent. As opportunities arose, she entered contests and exhibited them publicly. She also made special quilts for her family.
Does/did the quiltmaker belong to a group? Name of the group?
Tuley Park Quilt Club and Detroit News Quilt Club
Does/did the quiltmaker belong to a group?
Southside Chicago and Detroit MI
What are the main activities of the group?
Chicago group met to quilt and held periodic quilt shows; Detroit group held national exhibits and contests.
Estimated number of quilts made by this quiltmaker:
more than 50
Does/did the quiltmaker sell quilts?
no
Does/did the quiltmaker teach quilting?
no
Who photographed this quilt?
Don Gonzalez
Access and copyright information:
Restricted
Copyright holder:
Susan Salser
Details
Cite this Quilt
Gasperik, Mar. Leaf and Vine . 1944. From Mary Gasperik Legacy Project, Mary Gasperik Private Collection. Published in The Quilt Index, https://quiltindex.org/view/?type=fullrec&kid=18-14-43. Accessed: 02/08/25
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Gallery
Gasperik 04: Kit Quilts
Waldvogel, Merikay
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Exhibit
The Quilts of Mary Gasperik
Salser, Susan
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Ephemera
HomeNeedlecraft Creations-Decorator...
Home Needlecraft Creations
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Ephemera
The Quilts of Mary Gasperik
Salser, Susan
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Gasperik, Mary Quiltmaker
Mary Gasperik Legacy Project
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Tulip Vest Gasperik, Mary