Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2016 – #9

 

  As I have been looking for antique quilts to highlight this year I am again reminded of the debt we owe to quilt scholars, quilt collectors and to museums for preserving our quilting history.   This quilt was collected by quilt historian Cuesta Benberry.  Quoting from the Great Lakes Quilt Centre website, this is what she said: “I purchased this unusual quilt from Dick and Suellen Meyer in Crever Couer, Missouri. With its bright antimony orange background, and four block setting (each block approximately one yard square), it bears a strong resemblance to a Pennsylvania-Dutch work.” I whole heartedly agree with her on the resemblance.  It also reminds me of candy canes! (I have Christmas brain right now!)   This quilter, like many other quilters whose work we have seen during this floral quilt celebration, was independent minded in her approach to her design.  Of the centre pinwheels,  one has 11 red swirls, the rest have 9, and the centre swirl motifs all finish at different diameters.  The flowers are similar but not exact.  These are design elements that I find charming.  An unusual four block design, it is bold and engaging, drawing the eye in and around.  This visual movement is partly because of the movement of the stems, but also because she employed a light hand when deciding on the size of leaves,  how many of them she was going to include, as well as their placement.  Her decision to have ample “negative” space in relation to the motifs keeps the quilt from being too “busy” or visually overwhelming.   Cuesta was one of the early pioneers in quilt study.  What started as an eagerness in studying patterns and block names grew to her amassing a phenomenally extensive collection of quilt pattern ephemera and to ground breaking research on the history of African American quiltmaking.      You can find more about Cuesta and her work at the following links: The Cuesta Benberry Quilt Research Collections at GLQC/MSU Karen B. Alexander’s  “Remembering Cuesta”  Articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post And an exhibition of her quilts is on until February 28th, 2017 at the DuSable Museum in Chicago   Thank you Cuesta!  We modern day quilters are indebted to you.