The Wedding Quilt

Wedding Quilt for Bob and Stella's wedding in January 1942

Laura Lulu Norcutt Kartak

 

Laura Lulu Norcutt Kartak

This is the Grandmother's Flower Garden wedding quilt that my husbands grandmother, Laura L. Norcutt Kartak,  (4/30/1886 - 12/20/1985) made for her fourth and youngest  child, Robert (Bob) Aurelius and his bride Stella Marie.  It was made before WWII started, they were married in January 1942 before Bob was shipped out to the Pacific.  Stella then went to live with her new in-laws, she was not yet out of high school.  Laura and her husband, Louis lived in Park Rapids, Minnesota, where Louis was the Creamer Manager for a large company farm.  Laura made four of these quilts in different colorways - yellow, blue, pink and green, as wedding quilts for each of her children.  She used her Singer Treadle Sewing machine to piece them together.  (I have that treadle today).  It was hand quilted by a Native American woman who took in washing, ironing, sewing and quilting.  Laura would pay her weekly so she always had money to buy food for her family.  All four of the wedding quilts were made sometime in the late 1920's and 1930's.  According to Stella, this is the only one of the wedding quilts that survived.  Bob's favorite color was green.  He always said "that green was grateful to the eye".   Stella's favorite color was blue, another cool and restful color.  After some years of use, she said "that since green wasn't her favorite color she carefully put their wedding quilt away".  I'm glad she did, it now lives most of the time in our guest bedroom.  The other three quilts were also well used and I hope well loved.  I feel very lucky to have the only surviving wedding quilt that Laura made.

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