Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2019 – #12

Well,  I have almost recovered from my “turkey coma”.  

 

This final instalment is going to be a “two-for”.

 

 

This first quilt I have loved for a very, very long time.  In fact when I think of Amish quilts this one invariably pops into my mind.  I don’t have any information on this quilt other than at one time it was offered for sale by Julie Silber and I was completely gobsmacked by it.  It sold before I got to it.   Add it to the list of ones that got away.

 

Why do I love it?  These colours are not in my wheel house, but the maker went to town.  It looks like she might have been working from the inside to the outside.  Why do I say that?  Look at the centre of the quilt and the addition of the peachy coloured pieces, in the three outer “columns” on the left and right and the upper and lower two rows, that don’t appear in the rest of the quilt. It is interesting to revisit this quilt again after not having looked at it for a few years.  What am I noticing now that I didn’t see before?  The one “square” where the contrast is so low between the two triangle pieces that it looks like a white square instead of two half-square triangles; the use of that tobacco brown colour … never noticed that before because I was focusing on the use of turquoise in the quilt; how secondary shapes are formed when two triangles in adjacent “squares” are the same colour; how the half-square triangles are set differently in the upper and lower two rows.  I still love this quilt after all these years.

 

Was this quiltmaker “quilting with abandon” … yes.  Absolutely yes.

 

And finally our last quilt of the season is from Darwin Bearley’s collection.  (Thank you again Darwin for setting me straight on that one quilt).

 

 

This quilt is so engaging.  First I see the central star, then I see the secondary pattern formed by the black setting pieces in the middle and then the flower scallop shape that occurs as a secondary pattern in the outer ring of diamonds …  what an enchanting detail that really stands out because of colour placement.  It is not easy to successfully achieve the feeling of a star bursting in this pattern, but it is masterfully done in this quilt because of the use of colour and value. 

 

And those two borders!  The boldness of the almost candystriping effect of the inner border and the delicacy of the sawtooth border.  There is a lot going on in this quilt, but it is stunning successful.  

 

Was this quilter, “quilting with abandon”?  Most definitely yes.  You can feel it. It may be more orderly and “constrained” than the quilt above but the enthusiasm and joy still shines through.

 

I am so very glad that you joined me this year for the Twelve Quilts of Christmas.  Please leave a note and let me know what you thought and what you liked.  I would love to hear from you.

 

Wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful, happy, joyous New Year.

 

Now, off we go … let’s quilt with abandon!

 

Mary Elizabeth