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Between 1911 and 1912, eight of Marie Webster’s quilts were featured in color in the Ladies’ Home Journal, one of the leading women’s periodicals of the time. Webster, a pioneer quiltmaker, designed all the original patterns for her quilts. In the 1920s and the 1930s these patterns were sold through her home business, the Practical Patchwork Company.

Marie Webster finished this quilt in time to include it in her 1915 landmark publication Quilts, Their Story and How to Make Them. It is executed in pastel shades, a Webster trademark. Approximately 800 grapes, leaves, narrow vines and tendrils were painstakingly appliquéd using minute stitches. This quilt, made up of four appliquéd squares, is a revival of the four-block set popular in the mid-nineteenth century. The addition of Webster’s innovation, the appliquéd sashing strips in the middle, sets this quilt apart from others. The scalloped outer border follows the long wavy vine pattern on the inner border.