Museum displays Mennonite quilts
More than 150 years of Mennonite quilting is represented in Mennonite Quilts: An American Tradition at Kauffman Museum on the Bethel College campus in North Newton. The eight-day special exhibition will be on display June 15-23 as part of a series of quilt exhibits celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Prairie Quilt Guild of Wichita.
Mennonite Quilts features rarely seen examples from private collections and the Kauffman Museum quilt collection. Prairie Quilt Guild members Mary Beth Goering, McPherson, and Sara Reimer Farley, Wichita, are the guest curators of Mennonite Quilts. Goering and Farley selected quilts that show the full range of American quilting styles, such as wholecloth, pieced, embroidered, appliqued, and crazy quilts.
The oldest piece in Mennonite Quilts is an 1840s "Courthouse Steps" from the Paul Haury family. The Haurys emigrated from Germany to the United States in the early nineteenth century.
Immigrant Mennonites readily adopted American quilting styles such as the "Ohio Star" and a "Plume Applique" seen in late nineteenth century quilts from the Rupp family. Americanized Mennonites shared quilting with the Mennonites who emigrated from Russia and Prussia to the Great Plains in the 1870s and 1880s. A "Triple Irish Chain with Strawberry Applique" was handsewn in red, green, and orange cotton fabric in 1880 by Katharina Schrag Wedel.
The twentieth century may represent the pinnacle of Mennonite quiltmaking in Kansas. Examples of wholecloth quilts include a "Star Medallion" made before 1912 for Elisabeth Bachman Bartel, a crochet trimmed rayon baby quilt made by Maria Penner Funk for her granddaughter Mary Beth Funk Goering in the late 1930s, and a king-size wholecloth stitched by Lydia Yoder Miller of the Plainview Mennonite Church and purchased at the 1982 Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sale auction. In wholecloth quilts, the quilting stitches produce the design.
This technique contrasts with pieced quilts where the color and placement of patterned fabric yield the design. Examples of Mennonite pieced quilts in the exhibition range from a simple "Nine Patch" pieced by Helen Bartel (Moddelmog) in 1922 when she was six years to old, to "Sugarloaf" pieced from salt sacks and dress scraps by Clara (Berger) Jenkins, and a crib-size "Double Wedding Ring" made by Kathryn (Hildebrand) Klaassen about 1947 as a gift for her sister-in-law s first child.
One of the more unique works in the exhibition is a pieced "American Flag" made by Irene Keller Baumann which is embellished with the embroidered names of Halstead residents who served in World War I. Some pacifist Mennonites served in the US Army as non-combatants because there was no option of alternative service during that worldwide conflict. Other examples of embroidered quilts include a friendship quilt presented to Rev. Gustav and Mrs. Amy Enss by the Hoffnungsfeld Sewing Society in 1928, and a crib quilt quilted and embroidered by Laura Wedel Schrag for her daughter Joyce Schrag Hall in the early 1930s.
The art of applique is represented in the exhibition by "Painted Poppies" made by Edna Harder Suderman, "Flower Basket Applique" stitched by Anna Graber Goering, and the classic "Sunbonnet Sue" made by Laura Wedel Schrag.
The rise of the American quilt industry is also represented in Mennonite Quilts with "Snowball" which was published in the Kansas City Star, a doll-size version of "Fruit Basket" distributed by McKim Studio pattern, and "Rose of Sharon" and "New York Beauty" both of which were patterns distributed with Mountain Mist batting.
The retention of American quilting is represented in the exhibition by two crazy quilts purchased from Old Colony Mennonites in Cuahtemoc, Mexico. The use of silk fabrics and extensive embroidery in the style of late nineteenth century crazy quilts contrasts with the traditional, isolated lifestyle maintained by members of the Old Colony.
Also on display at Kauffman Museum are quilted liturgical banners in the special exhibition The Eye of an Artist: A Visual Journey with Bob Regier. Regier designed the banners for First Mennonite Church in Hillsboro and the Bethel College Mennonite Church of North Newton. Regier has continued to collaborate with quilters, and a portion of his design for a quilted mural commissioned by the Silver Needles Quilt Guild of Salina will be shown through June 23.
Curatorial support for the Mennonite Quilts exhibition was provided by Kateisha Esau, Kauffman Museum summer assistant, and area quilters Ethel Abrahams, Emmy Midkiff, Louise Thieszen, and Violet Wildeboor.
Museum admission is $3 for adults, $1.50 for children (ages six to 16). Regular hours are 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. on weekends, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. The museum is located at 27th and Main in North Newton.
