Twelve Quilts of Christmas – #3

Another bold, folky, striking design to inspire us today.

Antique quilt dealer Julie Silber has looked far and wide since acquiring the quilt, to see if maybe this design was from a 20th century published pattern, but so far she hasn’t found a source and it seems to be one of a kind design. That being said, if you have an idea of the inspiration for this quilt let us know! It is such a stunning example of the maker going to town with her own idea.

While each block is the “same”, it is the lively little differences in each one that gives this quilt its charm: leaves that are set at just a tiny bit of an angle compared to it’s neighbour; yes three triangles on each side of the flower but some are a bit bigger than others or spaced or set a tiny bit differently; red crosswise sashing that almost match in some places, but are off just a bit. Are these really faults in design?

Somewhere along the way, in our glorious quilting history, perfection in quiltmaking became the focus and goal: teeny tiny quilting stitches, precision piecing and perfect applique. Quilter’s developed see-through templates to lay on top of blocks so that the elements would be placed precisely in the right spot before stitching down. Those quilts can be stunning without a doubt, and to be honest I have worked really hard to make circles as perfectly round as I could for one quilt. However, in that particular quilt of mine, their random layout gave me exactly what I personally wanted … a little liberated (as Gwen Marston would call it) quiltmaking interest. I am so glad the maker of this quilt didn’t let anything get in her way of creating this stunner!

And really isn’t that what Gwen’s liberated quiltmaking is all about? Finding a way, sometimes muscling your way through, as Gwen would say, to create the quilt we want to make the way we want to make it. It’s just the best in my opinion.

I would love to hear your thoughts. That being said, the captcha on my website that allows you to leave comments is currently nonfunctional, but I would love to hear your comments over on Instagram or Facebook. Hopefully over Christmas I can get that fixed as I so love reading what you have to say.