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Gasperik 05: Quilts Made With 1930s Quilt Pattern Sources

During the 1930s and 40s, Mary Gasperik worked with many of the newest quilt patterns of the day. She made strikingly "modern" looking quilts in strong clear patterns and colors. She continued to use these 1930s patterns in the 1940s and even the 1950s.

Merikay Waldvogel
2005
All rights reserved

1930-1949
Giant Dahlia
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Giant Dahlia

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Piecing

Quilt Size: 78 inches x 94 inches

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

See introductory essay.

KID: 18-14-20

18-14-20
1930-1949
Iris
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Iris

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique

Quilt Size: ?? inches x ?? inches

Fabrics: Cotton, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

KID: 18-14-73

18-14-73
1930-1949
Grandmother's Fan...
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Grandmother's Fan

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Piecing, Hand Applique

Quilt Size: 64 inches x 89 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

Grandmother's Fan is one of two quilts which Gasperik gave to her daughter Elsie early enough that the girls remember it being on their parents' bed. The other Gasperik quilt which Elsie liked to use on her bed was Double Feather Star (#045), a quilt whose pattern Elsie helped to make., The pieced ...

KID: 18-14-23

18-14-23
1930-1949
Peach Posy
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Peach Posy

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique

Quilt Size: 68 inches x 96 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

McElwain's kit probably did not specify the quilting design. Excerpt of kit description: "Ready Stamped Quilt Top--The box contains background material, applique material, and final binding." A pattern with the same block design was offered by Nancy Cabot. It was called "Potted Rose Bush". ...

KID: 18-14-18

18-14-18
1930-1949
Peach Posy
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Peach Posy

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique

Quilt Size: 68 inches x 96 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

McElwain's kit probably did not prescribe the quilting design. The catalog describes 'Modern Rose' as: "Ready Stamped Quilt Top--The box contains background material, applique material, and final binding." The price, in McElwain's 1936 catalog is $11.50 for the stamped kit. A basted 'Modern Rose' ...

KID: 18-14-11

18-14-11
1930-1949
Blue Pinwheel
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Blue Pinwheel

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Piecing

Quilt Size: 63 inches x 93 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

This is a common (traditional) pieced pattern she might have seen in a quilt history book (Ruth Finley's) or she may have purchased a pattern (McCall's).

KID: 18-14-21

18-14-21
1930-1949
Blue Pinwheel
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Blue Pinwheel

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Piecing

Quilt Size: 61 inches x 98 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

KID: 18-14-22

18-14-22
1971
Philadelphia Pave...
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1971

Philadelphia Pavements (Doris)

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Piecing

Quilt Size: 76 inches x 89 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

Maker's daughter, Elsie Krueger, arranged to have two Philadelphia Pavements quilt tops made by her mother quilted after Gasperik's death. Elsie decided to do this because her mother's piecing was complete, and the quilting was likely to be simple and straightforward. Selected by daughter Elsie duri...

KID: 18-14-80

18-14-80
1935
Laurel Wreath
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1935

Laurel Wreath

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique, Embroidery

Quilt Size: 80 inches x 101 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

The quilt owner believes a second Gasperik "Laurel Wreath" quilt existed, but has disappeared. , The Nancy Page series called for 25 different flower and bird block appliques. Gasperik used only eight flowers and four birds from the Nancy Page series. She substituted flower designs from Nancy Cabot...

KID: 18-14-6

18-14-6
1930-1949
Tree of Life
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Tree of Life

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique, Embroidery

Quilt Size: 68 inches x 89 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

According to family stories it was Elsie who persuaded her mother to quilt some of the birds, rather than execute all of them in colorful applique. Elsie had a rather austere quilt aesthetic. Her mother, on the other hand, was probably well aware of the richly colorful (and crowded) Tree of Life d...

KID: 18-14-49

18-14-49
1930-1949
Tree of Life
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Tree of Life

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique, Embroidery

Quilt Size: 68 inches x 91 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

KID: 18-14-50

18-14-50
1942
Tree of Life
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1942

Tree of Life

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique, Embroidery

Quilt Size: 81 inches x 90 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

Gasperik not only added more applique pattern elements to the McCall suggestions, she also made her designs more complicated by subdividing suggested pattern elements. This subdividing allowed her to greatly expand her palette of fabrics, especially noticeable on the two birds. The purple print wi...

KID: 18-14-51

18-14-51
1950-1975
Cactus Basket
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1950-1975

Cactus Basket

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Piecing, Sashing is appliqued, not pieced. Flower pots are appliqued onto whole cloth. These are virtual, not 'real', blocks. Although this quilt resembles the look of McElwain's Cactus Flower design, in fact the diamond pattern units cannot match. When 4 McElwain diamonds are joined, they form a flat-bottomed unit; when 4 Gasperik diamonds are joined they create a convex opening into which the fifth (green) diamond is fitted sideways. This is unusual 'cactus flower' piecing.

Quilt Size: 45 inches x 53 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

KID: 18-14-52

18-14-52
1930-1949
Victory Garden
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Victory Garden

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Piecing, Hand Applique

Quilt Size: 84 inches x 98 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

It may be that Gasperik pieced this quilt some years before she completed it as a wartime quilt. The flower garden pattern was very popular with The Detroit News Quilt Club and its quilt shows, as Gasperik no doubt learned when she encountered them in 1935, her first visit to that huge quilt show....

KID: 18-14-44

18-14-44
1938
Roses and Forget ...
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1938

Roses and Forget Me Nots

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique, Embroidery

Quilt Size: 74 inches x 95 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

KID: 18-14-29

18-14-29
1930-1949
Old-Time Nosegay
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Old-Time Nosegay

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Embroidery, Gasperik rearranged the placement of the 12 different Nancy Page bouquets and she angled the placement of her border flowers so that they 'dance' left and right rather than march in the straight up and down order proposed by Nancy Page/Detroit News pattern.

Quilt Size: Unknown x Unknown

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

It should be noted that the Gasperik quilt is made by appliqueing the bouquet and individual flower commercial blocks onto a whole piece of fabric rather than by assembling the quilt block by block, which is the way newspapers marketed block quilt patterns. She could not have begun this quilt bef...

KID: 18-14-78

18-14-78
1930-1949
Hosannah
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Hosannah

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Quilt Size: 75 inches x 91 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

KID: 18-14-87

18-14-87
Not known
Daisies Won't Tel...
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: Not known

Daisies Won't Tell

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique

Quilt Size: 76 inches x 91 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Other, Broadcloth, Other, Solid/plain, Non-cotton fabric used for the two appliqued hearts and six cornucopias.

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

Salser has identified two possible sources of Gasperik's quilted fern-leaf pattern. One is found in a booklet distributed by Sears Roebuck and Co. in 1933, which was called "Sears Century of Progress in Quilt Making". On the last page of the booklet, under the title "Feathered Star Now Available ...

KID: 18-14-74

18-14-74
1950-1975
Delectable Mounta...
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1950-1975

Delectable Mountains

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Piecing, Hand Applique, It appears that on 3 different quilts Gasperik used a yellow-green or lime green backing: #011 (an undated Indiana Wreath), #021 (this Delectable Mountains, which is dated 1953) and #030 (Indian Feather Star, an undated quilt). If these quilts are ever reunited, they should be compared, to see if that fabric matches and can help date the two undated quilts. In this connection, it should be noted that the four applique birds in the center medallion of this quilt use the same pattern (as yet unidentified) as the trios of bluebirds hovering on the Gasperik's four 'Indiana Wreath' quilts.

Quilt Size: 85 inches x 101 inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

Other quilting designs come from WLM Clark "Grandmother's Perforated Quilting Patterns" Booklet #32 and/or Needleart Guild's "Original Master Quilting Patterns" (#83 - Corner Feather Designs), See introductory essay.

KID: 18-14-26

18-14-26
1930-1949
Irish Chain
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Irish Chain

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Quilt Size: Unknown x Unknown

Fabrics: Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

Pattern appeared on Lockport Mills Inc., of Lockport, N.Y. batting inserts. Called "Quilt of a Thousand Prints" the "pattern [was] furnished through the courtesy of the Mary McElwain Quilt Shop, Walworth, Wisconsin." The wrapper is undated. The McElwain 1936 catalog offered "Quilt of a Thousand P...

KID: 18-14-75

18-14-75
1930-1949
Dresden Plate
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Dresden Plate

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Quilt Size: Unknown x Unknown

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

It is not known who won the raffle for this quilt or what became of it after it was displayed in the Gasperik Market's front window in 1936., Although impossible to tell from the 1936 photograph (the only surviving image of this quilt), the quilting design Gasperik used was probably the one proposed...

KID: 18-14-77

18-14-77
1930-1949
Dress - Dutch Boy...
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Dress - Dutch Boy and Girl Appliqué Dress

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique

Quilt Size: Unknown x Unknown

Fabrics: Cotton, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

KID: 18-14-9

18-14-9
1930-1949
Cottage Behind th...
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Cottage Behind the Hill

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Embroidery

Quilt Size: inches x inches

Quilting Techniques: Hand quilting

Fabrics: Cotton, Print, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

“Cottage Behind the Hill” was also offered as a 14” appliqué pillow pattern C365 on page 30 of Aunt Martha “Favorites Old and New - A New Book of 35 Quilt and Quilting Patterns" (1932).

KID: 18-14-108

18-14-108
1930-1949
Calla Lilies
Gasperik, Mary

Date Made: 1930-1949

Calla Lilies

Creator: Gasperik, Mary

Location Made: Chicago, Illinois (IL) United States

Contruction: Hand Applique, Embroidery

Quilt Size: inches x inches

Quilting Techniques: Not quilted

Fabrics: Cotton, Solid/plain

Project: Mary Gasperik Private Collection

Gasperik used the lily bouquet pattern featured in this framed applique on at least four completed quilts: #012 (a 1944 bridal bouquet), #013 (a 1944 wedding anniversary quilt), #064 (a circa 1956 wedding bouquet) and #068 (an undated and now missing quilt, which the family calls "Mom's Quilt" becau...

KID: 18-14-3

18-14-3