Circa 1931
Possibly made in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ardis and Robert James Collection, 1997.007.0912

This month's quilt features a pleasing palette of yellows and greens, all in glowing cotton sateen fabrics. The unknown quiltmaker used the Mountain Mist pattern, Dancing Daffodils, which was first printed in 1931. She appliquéd 20 16-inch blocks with thread to match her fabric, then set them together using an off-white sateen.

The blooms are lightly stuffed and all parts of the daffodil—bloom, stem and leaf—are outlined with embroidery. To complete the quilt, she used diamond, echo and spiderweb quilting in thread to match each section.

Mountain Mist batting, manufactured by the Stearns & Foster Company of Cincinnati, Ohio since 1846, began to offer quilt patterns on their batting wrappers in 1929. These patterns were extremely popular during the 1930s and 1940s, becoming staples in the vast market of quilt patterns and kits. The patterns are still popular today. In fact, 130 of them are still available for purchase from the Mountain Mist company.

Mountain Mist patterns offered a wide range of motifs, colors, and styles that have come to typify the quilts of the first half of the twentieth century.