Images(2)

Quilt, "Whirling Star"

Date1935-1940

Maker Laura Percy "Dear Laura" Shaifer American, 1892 - 1983

OriginAmerica, Mississippi, Claiborne County

MediumCotton, wool (by microscope)

Dimensions77 1/2 inches X 67 inches

Credit LineGift of The Children of Elizabeth Shaifer Hollingsworth - Allison Shaifer Hollingsworth Moxey, Ann Davidson Hollingsworth Weeden and Christopher Alton Hollingsworth, and The Children of Sanfrid Davidson Shaifer - Mary Laura Shaifer Bell, Jodie Stovall Shaifer Huddleston and Sanfrid Davidson Shaifer, Jr.

Object number2025.609.21

DescriptionRectangular quilt pieced from multicolor printed floral cottons and solid yellow and green in a design known as "Whirling Star." The quilt consists of fifty-six squares, each pieced of trapezoids and triangles to form patterns that appear to circle around a central point, similar to a windmill. No border designs. Quilted through thick woolen batting and solid light green backing with 5 to 7 green running stitches per inch. The quilting is stitched in the seams of the pieced designs. The edges are bound with narrow green cotton binding matching the backing.
Several of the brown cotton prints are disintegrating, revealing the batting. The quilt appears to have shrunk in washing.Label TextThis quilt is part of a large donation of quilts by the Shaifer family of Claiborne County, MS. These 46 quilts were made by women from four successive generations of the family, dating from the mid-1800s to the 1980s.

"Dear Laura" Shaifer (1892-1983) worked this quilt based on a Laura Wheeler pattern, one of many bylines distributed by Reader Mail, Inc starting in the 1930s. It appears the company- which went by several names over the course of the 20th century- offered patterns for quilts, clothes, and other needlework projects under a variety of bylines, allowing them to market various features to a single newspaper as if they were from different sources. This "Whirling Star" pattern was published as early as August 1933, described in one Laura Wheeler column as "one of those quilts that has always delighted the quiltmaker's heart. When finished, it forms a beautiful and seemingly intricate pattern, that invariable arouses admiration."Provenance1930s, quiltmaker Laura Percy Shaifer [1892-1983] (Claiborne County, MS); dates unknown, descended in family to Elizabeth Shaifer (Mrs. Al) Hollingsworth [1933-2016] and Al Hollingsworth (Claiborne County, MS); 2025, gift of Shaifer family via Mr. Al Hollingsworth to Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamburg, VA)