To date, six quilts have been positively associated with Rebecca Scattergood Savery, of the prominent Philadelphia Quaker family whose best known member is cabinetmaker William Savery (1721–1787). This Sunburst Quilt, a Friendship Star Quilt also in the museum's collection, and four other quilts have been fully documented.

The Sunburst Quilt is remarkably similar to one in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and another still owned by a family member. The Philadelphia Museum's quilt was donated by descendants of Savery with a piece of white cotton sewn onto the back containing a note that was written about 1890 by Hannah Savery Mellor. It reads, "This quilt was made for Mother by my Great-grandmother, Rebecca Scattergood Savery." The quilt still owned by the family has a similar tag, as well as one signed by Elizabeth L. Savery, one the quiltmaker's granddaughters. The Savery-associated quilts in the American Folk Art Museum were found by the donors in a barn near Philadelphia that originally had belonged to a direct descendant of the quiltmaker.

Approximately 2,900 diamonds made of roller-printed cottons (including some glazed chintz) form this large quilt. It was pieced using the English template method (also called "whipstitch," "paper template," or "English patchwork"), a more time-consuming process than the typical American "running stitch" technique. For English template piecing, the seamstress cuts paper templates to line each piece in the quilt and then bastes fabric patches over the templates. She then whipstitches or overstitches the pieces together by hand and later removes the papers. This method was most often used for quilts made in all-over mosaic-type patterns rather than for those quilts constructed in blocks.

Elizabeth V. Warren, "Sunburst Quilt," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 325.