Mary Sterrett Gist created this quilt using “Feathered Star” blocks. Thirty-six 12 ½-inch squares pieced of printed cottons are set with plain white squares. A 2-inch appliqued saw tooth border completes the design. The pieced blocks are quilted in parallel diagonal lines, the small white squares in a diagonal grid, and the large white squares with a leafy branch motif. Finely quilted at 10 stitches per inch.
Mary Sterrett Gist was born on September 1, 1808, daughter of Independent Gist and Rachel Gist. Her life was spent near Westminster, Carroll County, Maryland. She died on January 22, 1890. “A venerable and highly esteemed member of the distinguished Gist Family . . . . a lady of fine literary ability and [who] had lived all her life in the house where she died.” ( Daily News , Frederick, Maryland, January 24, 1890.) According to the family she was a descendant of General Mordecai Gist of Maryland who fought in the Revolutionary War and died in 1792.