Bertha Stenge (1891- 1957) 
The Quilting Party, 1948
cotton, 81 by 75 inches 
Illinois State Museum collection
Gift of the Frank Mason Family 

The central medallion of this quilt is made in the appliqué technique, and the surrounding borders are made with the piecing technique. Bertha's inspiration for this design was a nineteenth-century folk painting of a quilting party (see resource list for the Web site). The fabrics for the borders were antique fabrics from the 1800s. Bertha bought them from an antiques dealer. This quilt appeared in McCall's Magazine in 1953 and in a solo exhibit of Stenge's quilts in New York in 1954. 

What was a quilting party?

How many borders can you count around the central medallion?

Note: This quilt was recently chosen as one of the 100 best quilts of the twentieth century by a panel of experts from The Alliance for American Quilts, The American Quilt Study Group, The International Quilt Association, and The National Quilting Association, four major non-profit quilting organizations.