The Four Petals quilt was made in Kentucky by Lucy M. Hauser during the 1940s. It is hand pieced and hand quilted. The fabrics used in this quilt are feed sack and dress fabrics. The borders, lattice strips and setting squares are a bright pink and aqua. The backing is a feed sack print in a dainty pink floral which compliments the pink and aqua fabrics perfectly. The binding is of the same fabric and is machine stitched. The machine stitching is very fine indeed which indicates it was probably stitched on a treadle machine.

The story of Lucy’s Quilt was passed onto to me by Eileen and Bernie Donnelly who have entrusted this quilt and it’s story to me. The story of The Four Petals quilt is reproduced here as told by Eileen and Bernie. ‘We were driving through West Virginia and Maryland on the last part of our trip.(October 1994) We were looking for old quilts and had been told by one of our son Stephen’s friends, who came from West Virginia, that “old” or Antique Quilts were no longer easy to find. They suggested we stop at some of the old general stores in the small country villages and ask. We did just that and were sent to see Mrs. Lucy Mae Hauser on her farm a couple of miles away. At this stage we we were right in the middle of the Amish country in Maryland, just near the West Virginia border. Lucy invited us in to show us what she had. She was absolutely thrilled to see us as she had not met Australians before. She told us she was 79 then she remembered she was only 76. She took us into a spare bedroom and pulled back a crocheted afghan to reveal a very bright quilt. “Railway Tracks” design. She said she had not sold quilts before, but would sell one to us. So we bought it, literally off her bed. Then she remembered she had some other quilts in the cupboard. She showed us “this one” and we liked it better than the one we had bought, so she agreed to exchange it, so we remade her bed.

This quilt was made mostly from Feed sacks and dress fabrics and she said she had made it in Kentucky in the 1940s. The design Four Petals, is very unusual and comes from the Farmer’s Journal which was first published in 1877. The design has probably been handed down through the family.’

The instructions for reproducing this quilt were written by Eileen and published in The Australian Patchwork and Quilting Magazine Vol. 9 No. 4 February 2002. Hope you enjoy seeing The Four Petals Quilt and reading the story of it’s journey to Australia. It is wonderful to have provenance of the maker’s of old quilts, so thank you to Bernie and Eileen for sharing the story of this lovely old quilt. Thank you for visiting The Plain Needlewoman.