Grapes and Grape Leaves As Symbols of Christ
Grapes Symbolic of the Blood of Christ
Elly Sienkiewicz’ lexicon, Spoken Without a Word, is a self-published book (1980) that is now out of print and hard to find. Featured is a list of botanical and floral images for which Elly provides traditional meanings. Grapes can represent the blood of Christ, as believed present in the Eucharist, and green grape leaves can symbolize the promise of renewed hope (in the Risen Christ).
12″ quilt block made by Patricia Cummings in 1992, from the pattern design provided in Spoken Without A Word
An interesting thing happened when I re-created the antique (Swale) Grapevine Wreath block design in Elly’s book. When I washed the block with its 120 tiny grapes, the hand-dyed purple fabrics discharged color, leaving “shading” on the white background. This calls to mind the symbolic meaning of the grapes.
Block made by “Elynore,” who was born in January 1923.
Update 4/9/09 – 2:07 p.m.: Rosie Werner, a specialist in antique kit quilts, has identified this design as “Martha’s Vineyard,” published by Mountain Mist Company, #28, as a pattern, not a kit. The earliest date Rosie has found for this pattern is 1931. Wonderful information! Thanks, Rosie.
To see a whole view of this kit quilt, all finished, see the quilt for sale on Ruby Lane, by seller “french72.”
This week, a woman wrote to me asking about the “value” of an unfinished, appliquéd quilt block that was made by her late mother-in-law. The only other information provided was that she had belonged to the Church of the Nazarene, except that on four unfinished blocks, the lines have all been drawn in pencil. Could this be an original design?
Since posting the photo on the front page of our website, I have heard from a reader who sent along information about a four block quilt called “Flowers and Grapes,” in the descriptive details supplied by the International Quilt Study Center for the 82″ x 82″ quilt in their collection, donated by Ardis and Robert James. The person who wrote to me owns an example of this same ornate block design, thought to have been made in the 1860-1880 era.
Isolated block of a quilt that has been documented as “Grapes and Flowers.”
To see the IQSC example, “Google” their site and enter the i.d. number: 1997.007.0378, into their database search engine.
After posting the initial file about this topic, we heard from Barbara Burnham, member of the Baltimore Appliqué Society. She sent two images.
Of these Barbara says, This block was featured on the cover of Baltimore Album Quilts by Dena Katzenberg, when the Lovely Lane quilts were on loan to Baltimore Museum of Art in 1981. In 2005, Lovely Lane Museum held an exhibit and offered a pattern set of selected blocks from four Baltimore Album quilts, drafted by the Baltimore Applique Society. It was wonderful to see the quilts up close. This is the center block of the Lipscomb quilt, and an extreme closeup including the fully-stuffed shaded grapes, and truly amazing buttonhole applique, Broderie Perse, and embroidered tendrils, all done in coordinating colors of wool thread.
The American Alliance for the Quilt’s “Quilt Index” brings up three pages of quilts with grapes if the word “grape” is keyed into their search index. You can find the pages here.
Hope you enjoyed this file!
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
