Dutch Sampler Quilt

This quilt, registered by Dorothy Rankin in the Illinois Quilt Research Project (CU-342), was made in 1954 from a kit produced by the Frederick Herrschner Company of Chicago. It is one of two Herrschner kit quilts in the collection.

Using the traditional colors of the type of Dutch ceramics produced in Delft, this sampler alternates blue and cream-colored fabric and cross-stitching throughout. Blue binding holds a cream-colored border on which are stitched a ribbon pattern.  Twelve blue blocks (three across, four down) provide the visual focus for this quilt.  Each block is carefully cross-stitched in cream colored thread with highlights created by navy thread. 

Each block displays a different pattern: (left to right, top to bottom)  a floral Rose of Sharon, a chicken and rooster with a leaf spray, a cross-in-square, a barnyard with silo scene, a single flower with heart-shaped petals, a two-towered building (church?), a stylized acorn and oak leaf, a house with trees and birds, a floral square, a leafy X shape terminated by hearts, two pine trees, and a pair of birds with a spray of leaves above them.

While Dutch tiles are usually white with a blue background, the patterns are here reversed.  Several of the more abstract designs can be found on Delft ceramic tiles and were surely modeled on them. Two mid-century trends are evident here. One trend, the nostalgia for the Colonial era—which included early Dutch settlers--was prevalent in the 20th century. The other trend was the copying of ceramic patterns in the production of quilts.  One can find this ceramic-copying trend in other Rankin quilts. The Imari, Violets, and Dresden Plate quilts of the Rankin collection are all modeled on ceramic patterns.