Bursting Star with Garden Maze
Mary Elizabeth Beardslee Durkee
Birmingham, Oakland County, Michigan
c.1870
72" x 92"
Cotton with cotton filling
MSU Museum Accession 1999:12.5
Photo by Pearl Yee Wong, all rights reserved Michigan State University Museumm

The twelve "Bursting Star" blocks in this quilt each contain an eight-point star and star tips of orange madder fabric. A ring of diamonds surrounds the central star to complete the design. The fabrics used for this outer ring of diamonds vary from star to star. Numerous small-scale prints in a variety of colors are used. A sashing separated the star blocks. The style of these lattice strips is called "Garden Maze" sashing. The maker's treatment of the sashing varies ever so slightly from block to block. She has pieced the "X" cornerstones of the sashing a bit differently at every junction.

The MSU Museum collection contains a second "Bursting Star" with "Garden Maze" sashing quilt also made by Mary E. Beardslee Durkee. The stars of both quilts are set against a vibrant double-pink fabric. The quilts share the same dimensions, however the second quilt is composed of twenty smaller-size blocks.

By Mary Worrall, excerpted from American Quilts from Michigan State University.

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