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Sears Quilt Contest 10: Kit Quilts in Contest Entries

By the 1930s, boxed kit quilts containing all the materials and instructions necessary for making a quilt were available at department stores and through mail order outlets. Bucilla was one of the early companies to sell kit quilts. Hubert Ver Mehren's center medallion quilt kits were first offered in 1932 in a small booklet he published entitled Colonial Quilts which was also distributed by mail order and at local stores. Quilt designer, Anne Orr, wrote a monthly column for Good Housekeeping on needlework and quilts. In her January 1933 column, she announced she would judge the Sears National Quilt Contest and included color photos of quilt kits that appeared as contest entries a few months later.

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Rising Sun
Lillie Belle Shaffer Carpenter
Hyndman, Pennsylvania
1933
Private Collection

This quilt made by Lillie Belle Shaffer Carpenter of Hyndman, Pennsylvania won first place at the Philadelphia Regional round of judging and therefore was exhibited at the Sears Pavilion at the Chicago World's Fair in the Summer of 1933. It did not win one of the three top national awards. In 1934, when the organizers re-opened the Fair for a second season, Sears invited back the top 10 regional winners for a special exhibit. Mrs. Carpenter saved her ribbons, the correspondence with Sears, the listing of winners in the Philadelphia round, a newspaper account with photos of the top three winning quilts, and letters from people who attended the 1933 exhibit asking her for the pattern. The pattern named "Rising Sun" is a commercial pattern she bought from Hubert Ver Mehren. The family called it "Sunburst."

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Star of France
Maker unknown
c1933
Private Collection

Star of France center medallion quilt, a Hubert Ver Mehren design.

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Autumn Leaves
Mary Hilliker
Carl Junction, Missouri
1933
Private Collection

Appliqué Quilt in Anne Orr design that won Fourth Prize in National Round.

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Iris
Flora Sexton Wade
Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee
1933
Private Collection

Iris appliqué quilt made from an Anne Orr Studio kit quilt. It was Second Place in the Atlanta Region.

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Vases of Flowers
Alma Irene Hull Cummings
Scotch Ridge, Iowa
1933
Private Collection

This quilt "Vases of Flowers" was made by an expert quiltmaker named Alma Cummings. For her contest entry, she completed a quilt kit Bucilla #8099 "Twin Vase" published in 1932. As well as this quilt is made, it did not win a ribbon.

Merikay Waldvogel
2011
All rights reserved

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