Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2020 – #1

Medallion quilts was one of the genres that spoke deeply to me early on in my quilting adventures.  Don’t get me wrong I like fixed block pattern quilts too … just ask me about how much fun I have had making my two Foothills quilts!  There is something though about medallion quilts that, by their very nature and make-up, draw you in and lead your eyes around to all the tantalizing details.  

 

Medallion quilts are defined as a quilt with a centre area of interest surrounded by a series of borders or frames.  On this side of the pond we call them medallion quilts, but on the other side, in the United Kingdom, they are known as ‘frame quilts” and they have a long and strong tradition there.  It was early British settlers arriving in North America in the 1700’s that brought the tradition of quiltmaking with them and their love for this genre.  With time and ingenuity wonderful variations on the theme have developed.   

 

The complexity of figuring out just how to get those borders or frames to “work out” (aka math gymnastics) so they “fit”, challenges even the most competent seamstress to work carefully so that all the calculations work out as she stitches, and everything measures just right in the end.  Sometimes it doesn’t work out exactly as it should and then you have something like the charming “waviness” of the Rajah quilt. (If you head to the website to take a look at this one, those carefully arranged bumps in the outer border are strategically placed there to help it lie flat for the photography! …  Do you see how I snuck one more quilt in this year!).  Sometimes you find other ways to deal with the “mathy” details (or to not deal with them … wink!) to have things end up the right length and fit, as I did with my “Leap of Faith” quilt.  There is more than one way into a castle to have fun with medallion quilts!

 

This style of quilt is one that I return to again and again.  I hope you enjoy this year’s gathering of what I think are 12 rather fun and spectacular examples!

 

***   I would like to also mention that, I could not present what I do here without the immense hard work and dedication of those who care for, document, preserve and write about our quilting heritage.  To present these quilts, I rely on a whole raft of state documentation and historical reference books, written by authors passionate about antique quilts, some of whom have passed and some who are still among us.  I am forever grateful to them for their hard work and dedication to preserving the knowledge they share on those pages.  

 

And I also rely on a number of museum websites and would be extremely remiss if I did not say again this year, a huge thank you to all those who are antique quilt collectors and to the museums and organizations who work to preserve our precious quilt textile heritage.  Their dedication and work to maintain images and curatorial notes on museum websites, as well as the work of organizations such as the Quilt Alliance and The Quilt Index, make the work of this project each year, a little more manageable.  With many antique quilt photos readily accessible on the web, we can all too easily forget and not recognize that someone or some organization is responsible for preserving and caring for those quilts so they can be enjoyed in person for years to come.  It can be challenging for collectors to arrange permanent custodianship of their collections into a museum. When a museum does make that commitment of preservation it comes with a substantial cost to properly archive the quilts. We need to support these museums, so they can truly be permanent custodians of our quilting legacy.  Especially during this time of the pandemic when the numbers of visitors to museums are down and the revenue and viability of these museums are being challenged, if you are in a position to do so, please think about making a donation to them to help “keep the lights on.” Doing so will allow them to be there when all this is over, and we can once again gather together.

 

 

When I started studying antique quilts in earnest, this medallion quilt made me stop turning the pages, with a sharp intake of breath as I paused to gaze at it.  I think, if I recall correctly that it was a picture of this quilt that was used in an advertisement for a line of reproduction fabric that RJR was producing.  This is the quilt that I think of when I think about putting a wide border on one of my quilts.  That blue border! It is divine!  There is just enough busy-ness in the patterning to keep the eye intrigued, but not so much that you are overwhelmed.  This quilt is, quite simply, a delight.

 

The curatorial notes mention that this quilt was part of a larger gift of household textiles to the Smithsonian.  The 150 fabrics in the quilt cover a 40-year period and provide a wonderful window into textiles from the time.  The Copp family was in the textile trade which may explain the vast array used in the quilt.  The notes also indicate that despite easy access to fabric because of their profession, the maker was fugal when making the quilt, using many small bits of the same fabric pieced together to achieve enough to complete a block.  They also point out, “a view of the pieced center of this quilt seen from the right side, suggests the shape of a tree, and the printed fabrics repeat in mirror fashion in each row about ninety percent of the time. Perhaps the center was erroneously placed in this direction, or it was meant to be viewed from the bedside.”  Do you see this detail?

 

The curatorial notes for this quilt are actually very full, which is wonderful.  But …  if you know me, you know I love diving a little deeper.  There are so many other details in this quilt that we can learn from and think about when it comes to our own work.

 

At first, the centre of the medallion appears to be just the 169-block centre of alternating light and dark blocks, but look closely and you will see integrated into that larger centre is a centre motif nine patch of tiny Ohio Stars.  Those tiny stars have centres the same colour as the points.  Now take a look at the Ohio stars in second border or frame.  The stars in the corners follow this same pattern, where the centres of the stars are the same colour as the points.  This element is in contrast to the stars at the midpoints on the sides of that second border where we find the centre of the stars is the same colour as the background fabric of that block, lending an openness and airiness to the design.  The first border of squares on point is also echoed in those “mid-point” stars of the second border.  What a sublime detail of visual play … your eyes can’t help but bounce back and forth between these two elements.

 

And if we look at colour, the pink is a lovely foil to the browns, especially when sprinkled with what is just the right amount of lighter and darker notes in the 169-block centre.  There is a thoughtfully placed injection of green at the midpoints on three sides in the final round of the second border, and where green was not used in the same position on the right/fourth side, two blues were used instead, with one being bolder than the other.  I love this substitution and change.  It gives the quilt energy.

 

And finally, that border.  This is the quilt that started my love for wide borders; borders that act like matting, treating the inner composition like a piece of artwork, despite the cut-outs for the four poster bed that this quilt graced.  And that blue! Have I mentioned that blue? The brilliance of it illuminates the quilt! And finally, the addition of the strip across the top (to lengthen a quilt top that was too short perhaps?) with the make-do substitutions, just makes my heart sing with glee.  In it’s imperfection, it is perfect. 

 

Pop over to the website using the link in the caption above (there are great zoom in qualities) and see how they handled striped fabrics in the quilt!  What do you see?