Priscilla

Priscilla Blocks - 1940s

Four years after their marriage in 1906, Eva and Max Brose moved to Rothschild, Wisconsin, where Max had secured a job at the newly formed Marathon Paper Mills.  Eva, born in DePere, Wisconsin, in 1886, was only 20 years old at the time. (check dates, she would have been 20 at marriage)

Rothschild began as a company town, with most houses and stores being owned by the mill.  Houses were rented to mill workers for as low as $8 per month and, for the first decade, the company-owned store was the only place to buy groceries.  For many years, workers were paid, at least partially, in scrip that could only be used in the store. 

Eva spent her days taking care of her two sons, her husband, their home, and her vegetable garden.  Her granddaughter Evie remembers that Eva enjoyed dressing up to go “uptown” to shop for clothing in Wausau.  But, like many women, she owned a Singer treadle sewing machine and made many of her family’s clothes.  Eva pieced quilts using leftover fabrics from housedresses, aprons, and other practical items she made.  This quilt top was never made into a completed quilt; perhaps she simply had too many other projects to do.  Eva died in 1961.

The Quilt Top

This is a machine-sewn, pieced quilt top that was never finished into a quilt.  

The design of the block is called “Priscilla” and consists of a square in the center, which is placed “on point” (as a diamond), and triangles of two different shapes.   A triangle extends from each side of the center square and long, flat triangles finish the outside of the block.  Because of the bias edges of the triangles, this can be a difficult block to sew together. 

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The fabrics used for these quilt blocks are from the 1930s and early 1940s.  Eva saved all her leftover fabric scraps from making dresses and household items and used them in making her quilts.