Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2020 – #11

 

One of the many tomes that I have referenced over the years is The Quilt Digest, a series of five publications from the 1980’s with fascinating and informative articles.  This quilt was noted in one of the articles and it is only fitting that I quote the author, Barbara Brackman, from it, because, simply, I cannot match her words. 

 

“Nevertheless, it is satisfying to come upon a quilt which breaks these rules.  The quilt which flouts convention can be enjoyed on many levels.  We can be charmed by its outrageous disregard of precedent; we can marvel at its striking, intuitive design qualities; we can admire the perseverance of the maker who completed the project despite design problems or limited craftsmanship.

 

Although some of the unusual quilts here display limited craftsmanship, they cannot be summarily dismissed as merely ‘bad quilts.’  The artistic instincts of the markers transcend the poverty of materials and sewing abilities.  Uninhibited by traditions of either fine art or folk art, and possessing an intuitive creativity, these artists show us new ways to look at fabric, format, and quilt design.” *

 

*Michael M. Kile, editor, The Quilt Digest (San Francisco,The Quilt Digest Press, 1985, p. 70-75.

 

The biographical entry about this quilt notes that Mr. Faust’s wife died in 1903 leaving him to raise 3 children ages 3, 5 and 6.  He did all the cooking, cleaning, canning, laundering and sewing as he raised his children.  

 

I look at this quilt and marvel.  It is indeed one such quilt that should not have been dismissed when it was made, in the 1980’s nor now.  Defiant, innovative, bold.   And it disregards convention as much today as it did when he made it.  That mix of prints in those two borders … those dots … those thin solid fabric, circular borders … those corners.

 

You may remember the phrase I coined and have talked about in the past to describe this type of quilting … “quilting with abandon.”   This is a fine example of just that!