Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2019 – The oops Quilt!

DECEMBER 21, 2019

 

 

Wagon Wheel, Location unknown, c. 1920, 66″ x 79″, Maker Unknown. From the collection of Nancy Ray.

 

Darwin Bearley, antique quilt dealer and renowned Amish Quilt expert (you really should find his book on Amish Quilts, it’s superb) sent me a Facebook message saying that this quilt is not Amish.  He would know.  Prompted by his messaged I contacted Julie Silber to get more information about the quilt and clear up for me why I thought it was Amish.  Why did I contact Julie Silber?  She was the antique quilt dealer who sold the quilt to Nancy Ray, and since the quilt was identified in the sales listing as being ex-Esprit Collection and Julie was the curator of the Esprit Collection, if anyone would have information on the quilt and know more details it would be her. 

 

Here is what Julie wrote back to me when I messaged her and asked for more info on the origins of this quilt:

“Not Amish, but it was part of the Esprit Collection. After Doug (Tompkins) left, having sold his half of the business to Susie (Tompkins), the collection broadened. Susie added non- Amish quilts, starting with very High Style examples like Baltimore Album Quilts, and then onto this kind of more everyday, but no less wonderful kind of quilt. Rule of Thumb — Amish quilts made during hte classic period (when they were making quilts for themselves, 1880 – about 1960) do not have printed fabrics. There are exceptions, but not very many. This quilt is Southern — and I can not remember more about its history — but it is not an Amish quilt.  It’s a simple and completely understandable error. Esprit was known for SO many years as having Amish quilts exclusively. That change came very late in the game.”

 

So there you have it.   With egg on my face, lesson learned.  Don’t assume.  Which I did.  I assumed that because this quilt was ex-Esprit collection that it was Amish.  If I had put aside the “ex-Espirit Collection” history of the quilt and thought about it, I should have realized that because of the printed fabrics it was not Amish.

 

I love this quilting community we belong to and their generosity.  A huge thank you to Darwin Bearley and Julie Silber for clarifying things.  I most sincerely apologize for this error.  It is still a lovely quilt and I will leave the description below.  And on the 26th I will have one final quilt to make it up to 12.

 

Here is the original comments about this quilt (which is NOT Amish!!!!)

 

This quilt (which we now know is not Amish) appreared in the second book that I co-authored, Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts.  I had limited room for captions.  I have all the space I need here.     Grab a cup of tea.  I’ll wait for you!   This quilt’s graphic and bold re-proportioning of a Nine Patch block, is one of the details that make this quilt spectacular.  I love how the block background of the corner wheels overlaps with the block background of the centre wheel, giving them more connection than if the corners had just been touching as in a traditional Nine Patch.     The concentric rings emphasize the movement created by the piecing of the wheels. And all of this circular movement is tempered by the calming straight diagonal quilting lines in the setting blocks … such a lovely way to create balance. 
 
 
The deep blue background, of the pieced blocks, really lets the colours in the piecing shine bright, making the lights in the piecing pop as well as emphasizing the reds and blacks. The colour palette is fairly tight in this quilt: clarets, indigos, shirtings, red, browns, taupes, some double pinks, and morning prints (black prints) and no yellows or purples.  The consistency of this colour story adds tranquility into a quilt that is otherwise very busy visually. Well … that colour story is consistent except for that lower right block where some cheddar was added and some wonderful greens too.  Notice how the greens are balanced out in that one block, between outer rings and the inner ring, and between one side and the other … well sort of.  It works.  It adds a bit of punch and again if you took the cheddar and green away you would miss them.  
 
 
And you don’t notice right away the different proportions of the setting rectangles, but their difference just adds more visual delight.
 
 
I have a deep fondness for this quilt.  It is as spectacular in person as it is in the photo.  

 

 

COMMENTS

  1. Still an extraordinary quilt. For some reason, one of the things I like is that the quilting lines in the solid block on the right are going a different direction than the others. Not sure why that is such a pleasant draw.

    REPLY

  2. My motto….every quilt needs a little orange! HA! I love this one….scrappy wins every time!

    REPLY

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