Star of Constantine
1936
Hand-pieced and quilted cotton

Illinois State Museum Collection, gift of the Frank Mason family

With this quilt, Bertha Stenge won her first national contest. Scoring 100 out of a possible 100 points, Star of Constantine won first place in the 1936 Canadian National Exhibition held in Toronto. The design for this quilt, which included 7,200 pieces and 500 colors, was based on a decorated plate she saw at The Art Institute of Chicago. The six-pointed stars set into a background of hexagons combined traditional pieced patterns in an innovative way. Stenge's coloring of the pattern and placement of the stars created a central medallion surrounded by multicolored rosettes and white stars. This quilt was used to illustrate an article about quilting in the 1937-1939 edition of the Standard American Encyclopedia.