Bertha Meckstroth studied art and sculpture at Radcliffe College. After setting up a studio in the 1920s, she merged sculpture with an interest in quiltmaking creating what she called “sculpted cloth.” Eschewing the quilt aesthetics of the day, she imitated aspects of other decorative arts as well in her quilts. She was invited to display her quilts at the Illinois Pavilion at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 1933.