Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2020 – #6
Maker: Mary Dingee Priestley (1767-1849)
From the collection of the Shelburne Museum.
Don’t you wonder about her thought process when making this quilt? It’s a bold choice to place the block segments in the first border the way she did. If you visualize changing the segments to a more conventional setting, like courthouse steps, for example, you would get two sections that are small and the quilt just wouldn’t sing as it does, nor visually move the way it does.
The four pinwheel corner posts in the final border anchor the diagonal movement of the centre pinwheel, almost visually by passing that busy second border on the way out to them.
This quilt is sophisticated simplicity. I wouldn’t change a thing about this quilt. Would you?
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There’s just something about a brown quilt! So lovely! And I love that very subtle placement of reddish/brown floral pieces creating a zigzaggy border around the center pinwheel….and when I focus on it, it turns the herringbone three dimensional! I love it! So much to look at on such a seemingly simple quilt! It’s gorgeous!
I was so focused on the placement of the segments of that first round that I totally missed that zigzaggy element you have pointed out. And of course now that I see it, I can’t unsee it and it really does give a three D effect. Thank you for pointing it out.