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QUILTS

circa 1880-1900
​VICTORIAN CRAZY QUILT MADE BY ANNA BARTELS

 This stunning quilt, with two matching pillows, was donated by Susan Hadley.  Her grandmother  Anna Baucke Bartels (4th from left, below) made it.  Anna is buried in St. Peter’s Lutheran  Church Cemetery.  This picture was posted on Findagrave by “Farmer” and is labeled as Henry Baucke, John Baucke, Lena Trute, Anna Bartels, & Louise Beethe, and being from the collection of Mary Baucke Ulrich.

Photo 7728

Susan gave us a copy of an assessment she was able to get at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska:

1885 - theresa korber's quilt for her daughter anna

FindaGrave Memorial for Theresa Korber, 1841-1948

FindaGrave Memorial for daughter Anna, 1873-1963

Theresa Irsik Korber in later years, from the Korber family tree of "jill-bisho" on Ancestry.com.

Here is a slide show with some details of of the quilt.  The fabric was plain dress goods, but the stitching was neat and serviceable.

And wouldn't you like to know a little more about the woman who made this quilt, Theresa Irik Korber?

Deborah Anderson forwarded this information in September 2019:

          Family Search has Theresa Irsik Korber's father, and marriage date provided by JeromeIrsik. Stephen Johann Irsik is listed in 3 censuses (1860-1880) and "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVG8-4JDS : 11 September 2019), Irsik, ; Burial, Everest, Brown, Kansas, United States of America, All Saints Cemetery; citing record ID 121020974, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

           Theresa's mother may be Mary Antonia Kabat Irsik https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/121021065/mary-antonia-irsik. However, their marriage date is after her birth date, and Mary's younger than her spouse, so Stephen might have had a previous marriage so that Theresa belongos to an earlier wife.  So I've requested more information from Jerome, and shared your request with him.
     
​      [signed] Debbie  (Shirttail relative, history teacher)

Thank you to Debbie, and we're looking forward to more information!
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circa 1880 - 1900
​a log cabin quilt done in a "streak of lightning" design

Nettie Stehlik donated this quilt years ago.  She is long gone now, and her children, Loren Joe and Merilee, do not know where she got the quilt.  They do not think it was a family item.  Whatever its source, it is a wonderful piece of craftsmanship.  It lay on a bed in  the Opera House bedroom for perhaps 50 years, next to an open window.  Although there were lace curtains on the window, it is likely that the quilt has faded greatly over time and may have had far more color than now.

Here is the vintage backing:

Here's a slide show with some details:

*under construction, photographs to be added*

1929
a class quilt for grades 4 & 5

Neighborhood quilts were popular “back then” but this one is unique.  Whoever taught the 4th and 5th grades that year put together a quilt with her students names. Those of the students who would graduate from Table Rock would do so in 1936 and 1937. Some – like the four Binder cousins – would fight in World War II, a war they could hardly have contemplated when they were about 10. 

As of 2016, the only surviving member of the students who graduated in 1936 and 1937 is Howard Morrison – his family left Table Rock before graduation; he and four brothers also went to war.  His name is not on this quilt his family must have moved here just before it was made as there is a Morrison family picture taken in 1929.  *Update: Howard Morrison died in 2019, just shy of 100 years old. The Editor.
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Charles Binder
Glenn Binder
Howard Binder
James Binder
Anita Brase
Dale Brock
Loraine Burow
Clifford Carter
Margorie Cook
Wanda Cook
Lloyd Edwards
Doris Harlow
Elmer Hartman
Hallena Horton
Bernice Kreifel
Opal Milburn
Orval Milburn
Zeda Phillips
Mae Plihal
Clarence Rottman
Bill Shafer
Opal Shafer
George Talbot
Orville Tucker
Loraine Vondrasek

our "digital" collection
we don't OWN these quilts, but pictures have been shared with us by our many friends

2017- tomek quilt

Dorothy Strohm displayed this lovely little quilt at the 2017 Tomek reunion in the basement of the Methodist Church.

trains in table rock quilts of 2017 & 2018

Eldonna Woltemath before the raffle for the Table Rock train quilt. Roger Vondrasek won it.

This is a slide show that shows some of the details of of the quilts:

the trains-in-table rock quilts of 2017 & 2018

A lap quilt made for Helen Norris Siemsen Martin's 98th birthday by daughter-in-law Ceilia Siemsen, holding it; Marty Siemsen, Helen 's son & Celia's husband, is seated at left. Helen died in 2018 at age 99. She graduated from Table Rock in 1937. By the way, her names is on the 1929 quilt made with names of 4th & 5th graders.

becky sitzman's last quilts

When Becky Sitzman learned she had breast cancer, she decided that it was time to make the quilts for her kids that she had always intended.  Over the years, as she fought the cancer, she persisted in making quilts, one for each child, and then she tried to make one for each grandchild before her time was up.  She was obsessed with her quilting projects, and she was delighted with the process of asking each recipient what kind of quilt they liked -- what colors, what pattern.  It was a legacy that has been treasured by all.  Becky died in 2007 at the age of 73. 

These are some of her last quilts:

Becky Sitzman with daughter Sherry Winkinhofer and the quilt she made for Sherry

A slide show of Becky at work during a visit to daughter Sandy Cerra's house in Kansas City:

quilting at the Norris house

Since 2016, the Rowdy Roadies quilting crew has been meeting quarterly at the Norris House in Table Rock, just to make quilts.

Kitty Koonse & Lynette Lackey

Sandy Cerra at her favorite machine, a vintage Singer "Featherlight. "January 2020

Sisters Sherry Winkinhofer & Sandy Cerra, January 2020

rowdy roadies quilting crew  back in table rock

 This article by Sharla Sitzman appeared in the Humboldt Standard & the Pawnee Republican:

They arrived in Table Rock last week before the weather hit.  Out of their van came sewing machines, totes of fabric and thread, groceries, and luggage. The suitcases were lightly packed given the dress code – mostly jammies.  It was the quarterly retreat of the Rowdy Roadies, a quilting club from the Kansas City area. 

The Rowdy Roadies are five friends who gather at Sherry Winkinhofer’s home on the north side of the Table Rock square to cut, iron, stitch, iron, stitch, iron, and repeat. They sew into the night and get up in the morning when they feel like it and sew some more.  In between, there is the food.  There are potluck snacks and meals, but they always eat at least once at the Round Up Bar and Grill.  Usually they walk across the square to get there, but this year there’s the snow. So they sit in their jammies and sew and Larry Sitzman comes by with some homemade potato sausages to plump up a menu.

The rowdy quilters are Kitty Koonse, Lynette Lackey, Sally Wooten, Sandy Cerra, and their hostess, Sherry Winkinhofer.  In the five years that they have been coming to Table Rock, there have been guests from time to time, and they have lost one member to cancer, Margret Anderson. 

As they sit at their machines on the long dining room table, motors hum on and off and threads are snipped. What does it take to make a house a quilting haven?  Sandy Cerra says, “A lot of stuff some people wouldn’t think about.”  Kitty Koonse ticks off a list, pointing around the room, “Sewing machines, irons, lamps....”  Their lamps are all OttLites, for the daylight clarity they provide.  “Cutting boards, ironing boards, chairs and tables to hold things.”  Electrical outlets, Sherry Winkinhofer adds, a lot of them.  Lynette Lackey says, “And chocolate. Chocolate is required.”  They all laugh, but only because it’s true.  “And wine is nice,” Sally Wooten adds. 

Of course, their sewing machines are special to them.  Sandy Cerra’s “go to” sewing machine is the oldest, a Singer Featherweight.  Kitty Koonse sits across from her with the newest machine, a Viking Jade that she bought herself for Christmas.  Why did she choose the Jade?  “It’s friendlier than my old one,” Kitty says, “I got tired of Miss Priss,”she adds referring to her justly-abandoned friend. One can put up with only so much before they come to the realization that the relationship is toxic.

What are they working on this trip?  Lynette Lackey has been piecing a quilt top with an Hour Glass pattern, and another top that is a simple nine-patch.  Sandy Cerra is working on a child’s quilt pattern called Fancy Forest, which involves a modern piecing technique.  Kitty Koonse is doing a quilt called Stars at Night.  That one is a quilt to make you smile.  It is a traditional pattern, but Kitty chose a Star Wars pattern for the blue.  You don’t see the Star Wars part until you look close. Shery is finishing up bindings on some baby quilts that she made, and has started a Lilac Quad, with lilac and moss green colors dominating. Sally is not quilting tonight.  She is using her embroidery attachment to embroider dish towels, an elegant design in red. She is donating two of the towels for door prizes at an upcoming Tea & History afternoon at the Table Rock Theater on February 9.  In between their other projects, they say, they work on UFOs – “unfinished objects.”
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If you’d like to see some beautiful quilts, take a look at some that are in our museum, go online to TableRockHistoricalSociety.com/quilts.
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