The Quilt Design Legacy Of Hubert Ver Mehren: Around The Frame
At July’s 2025 Quilter’s Hall of Fame Celebration held in Marion, Indiana not only was Laurel McKay Horton inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame (TQHF), but they also inducted Hubert Ver Mehren as a Heritage Honoree.
The Heritage Honoree Award is given to someone who made outstanding contributions to the world of quilting during his or her lifetime. The honored is someone whose body of work occurred at least 80 years ago. It is important that people who are no longer living and cannot speak for themselves have their impact on quilting shared too. The nominator needs to assist in researching the nominee’s contributions to the quilting world. This could include contacting the nominee’s descendants who could share their knowledge, as well as through quilts they designed, books, patterns, published newspaper articles, photos, and other ephemera. The nominator or someone else who has researched the nominee is invited to do a lecture/ presentation during The Celebration.
Hubert Ver Mehren had a significant impact on the quilt world in the 1930s. His quilt patterns are considered some of the most complex and dramatic designs of the day. He marketed his patterns anonymously or under pseudonyms, so he is largely unknown and TQHF felt it was time that he be recognized for his influence on twentieth century quiltmakers. Hubert Ver Mehren wasn’t a quilter. He served in WW1 and received the Distinguished Service Cross for his “utter disregard for his own personal danger in giving first aid to wounded and carrying them to a place of safety, under intense machine-gun and shell fire.” After the war he moved to Des Moine, Iowa where he started a branch of his father’s button and pleating business. He used the equipment to stamp embroidery blocks and sold them in the needlework columns in People’s Popular Monthly. With the growing popularity he stamped shapes of quilt pieces onto fabric and added cutting lines to create kits. His first kit was for a Lone Star Medallion in four shades of one color. From there he created other medallion motif kits. His designs were considered the most original of the First Quilt Revival of the 20th Century. Two of his designs were finalists in the infamous Century of Progress Quilt Contest in 1933.
Van Mehren published several product catalogs and sold individual patterns through newspapers and magazines under the name of the publication they appeared in. After 1934, “Home Arts Studio” appeared on some of his work. He remained the anonymous supplier unrecognized for his creative talent, marketing skills, and his most complex and dramatic designs. Certainly, a most deserving honoree!
To learn what made the Century of Progress Quilt Contest of 1933 infamous, go to waynedalenews.com/2018/04/a-century-of-progress-around-the-frame/
Lois Levihn is the owner of vintage quilt and fabric shop Born Again Quilts. If you have a quilt you’d like to have her feature, contact her at 260-515-9445 or bornagainquilts@frontier.com
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