Rose Basket
Bozena Vilhelmina Clarke
Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
Top made in 1939, quilted in 1943
73 3/4" x 94"
Cotton
MSU Museum Accession 6119.33
Photo by Fumio Ichikawa, all rights reserved by the MSU Museum

The "Rose Basket" quilt is in the style of a pattern designed by Anne Orr, a needlework and quilting designer from Tennessee who wrote a column and was needlework editor for Good Housekeeping magazine from 1919 until 1940. The trademark look of Orr's pieced designs is that they replicate the look of a cross-stitch pattern. A multitude of one-inch, finished squares are positioned to form the quilt's design.

Bozena Clarke began this quilt on October 11, 1938, completed the piecing in 1939, and entered it in the May 1940 Detroit News Quilt Show where it was awarded a third prize. The top was quilted in 1942 and then presented to Harriet Clarke for her high school graduation.

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