Wow! This quilt just knocked my socks off. The delicacy of the work. Those teeny tiny sawtooth or dogtooth borders making my small-piece loving self, giddy with delight. All the energy!
This curatorial notes includes some interesting history:
“Also known as the “Seamstresses’ Quilt,” this red and green example of mid-19th century quilting was in the George Slothower family of Baltimore County, Maryland. He was a wholesale dry goods merchant and the owner of two cotton mills: the Powhatan and Pocahontas Mills. Apparently at the time this quilt was crafted, resident seamstresses, usually of German or Dutch origin, made the family clothing and most likely this quilt.”
This quilt has so much visual movement to it, and in particular the fourth border does a lot of the work in this area. The crossed boughs sends the eye spinning around the design. The cornerstones do double duty, with the wreaths at once adding to the spinning movement, but also forming part of a strong visual “x” in combination with the sides of the centre area of interest that are set on point, and the outward pointing direction of the bud motifs in the second border.
This quilt is not “perfect”. The corners of the sawtooth borders resolve differently in each one … that’s okay! Look at that borders of vines, buds and leaves. Some of them turn the corner in a similar fashion. Others just go “Weeeee!” as they wing around the corners in freestyle form! In the floral wreaths, the centre flower is not exactly centred! That’s okay. “Straighten out” this pattern with overlays to get everything in exactly the “right” place and it would lose it’s charm. Just saying!
Condition, condition, condition. The watch words of collecting antique quilts. I am so glad this embroidered and hand appliqued piece was not overlooked because of some “age kisses” (aka staining).
Oh, how this quilt sings! The embroidered centre area of interest is sweet, enthusiastic and delicate and in direct contrast to the bold zig zag first border. The first or zig zag border is created by appliquéing the half-square triangles in place to create this wonderful secondary shape. The placement of those triangles is not precise. The upper right blue and taupe stripe triangles are placed in what would conventionally today been seen as the “correct” position to form what could be argued as the most pleasing arrangement of all of them in that corner. The other three corners are definitely more “liberated,” and I would argue say that rather than being “wrong”, that the they are delightfully charming. Thought went into placement of the colours of these triangle elements to stunning success. The madder triangles (the burnt orangish-red colour) are unexpected but oh so good! They are the “shocker” in this quilt and take the whole composition from sweet to intriguing. The madder colour also speaks to the darker coloured bits in the embroidery and in the final outer border. I can imagine she was making do with the size of scraps she had on hand in making these half square triangles. Don’t you love the two striped triangles in the middle on the sides? They visually balance out the madder triangles on the top and bottom. And look at the placement of the direction of the stripes in all of them. Yes, anything goes!
The hexagon florets sprinkled through this first border emphasize the zig zag movement of this border and yet at the same time soften the boldness of it, sending the eye dancing around the quilt. Intention is present in the placement of fabrics in the hexagons. Notice how when she didn’t have a pair to sit opposite one another, she substituted!
And finally, two bold wide borders … you just know I am loving this part of the quilt! The cornerstones fall short, and again I image that was because she was using fabric she had on hand. Does it really matter that they fall short? Is the design compromised because of this? Makes you question all the rules we have let into our heads doesn’t it? Could you put cornerstones that “fall short” into your quilt?
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?
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).
Broken Star, c. 1925-30, Made by Katie M. Yoder, mother of Mrs. Henry A. Raber, Baltic, Holmes County, Cotton. Collection of Darwin D. Bearley.
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.
One of the interesting things each year, in preparing the Twelve Quilts of Christmas, is tracking down current locations of many of these quilting treasures. Some of them I find first as pictures in old state quilt documentation books or other wonderful tomes from the quilt revival in the 70’s and 80’s. This is one of those quilts, whose current location evaded me until the final hour. I knew I had seen it in my digital travels over the years … oh but where? I found it in the end. The quilt landed, thankfully, safely in the hands of the International Quilt Study Centre. Which brings us around again to the issue of custodianship and supporting the museums that continue to preserve and protect our quilting heritage. It is why I try as much as I can to give accurate and full information about these quilts and where they are located now, in the captions below the photo of the quilt. Our quilting history is important. I want to honour the quilts, their makers and the custodians.
The second quilt revival in the late 1970′ and 1980’s saw a generation of quilt collectors who sought out some of the finest quilt examples and helped preserve them so we can enjoy them today. It is time now, as those collectors grow older, for another generation to grab the mantle and do whatever they can to help, big or small, continue to ensure that wonderful examples of quilts that are not currently in permanent collections make their way there. If in some small way my presentation of these quilts each year sparks an interest for antique quilts among a younger generation of quilters, then my work has had a beneficial side effect.
This year’s quilts also are shining a light on a word … “modern”. So many have commented, with surprise, on how “modern’ these quilts look. I think we have an opportunity here to examine the meaning of “modern” as we use it in the quilting world today. Interestingly the word “modern” has been used many times in history to define a particular period in quiltmaking where there has been a shift in style of quilting. And then slowly that newness and freshness of style shifts to become a tradition and something else comes along and is “modern” and embodies the purest of sense of the word as it is defined, in being “of the present or recent times” (Oxford Dictionary). At what point will what is happening in this “modern” quilting movement today become tradition?
Back when all that collecting was beginning, quilts such as this one may have been overlooked, because of it’s quirkiness, but someone did appreciate it. And that is all it took; the courage of one person to see the beauty in the odd, the different, the unique, the truly beautiful.
When I look at this quilt, it is it’s graphic beauty that draws me in. The stark contrast between the red and the black. The pounding rhythm created as those two colours march boldly around the “frames”. It is the beautiful pulse that is created by the ripples of purple borders that echo out and define the engaging purple centre. It is the freedom of the piecing and the caution thrown to the wind as the corners of each round resolve as they will, no concern to refinement and rules. You can feel the quilt being made, pushed to completion creating a composition that is actually perfection itself. Anyone who would dare to “straighten” out the measurements and line everything up would ruin it. I am so glad the maker did not have a rotary cutter and ruler!
A number of years ago I coined the phrase “Quilting With Abandon”. This quilt exemplifies this philosophy to it’s core. It is bliss. It exudes joy. And it just feels right that it is was the one that I was going to end this year’s Twelve Quilts of Christmas with. However, there is one more quilt tomorrow to make up for the “Amish Quilt That Wasn’t” that happened on day 8!
I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas!
See you tomorrow.
A quiltmaker, fabric designer, teacher, and speaker, Mary Elizabeth is also co-author of two best-selling books, “Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts” and “Small Pieces, Spectacular Quilts“. She has been a featured guest on The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. And her work has been shown at international quilt shows and featured in many international quilting publications.
Mary Elizabeth believes in “Quilting With Abandon”, stretching traditional boundaries and creating quilts with a subtle salute to the past. She is enthusiastic about our quilting heritage and the lessons to be learned from the antique quilts she studies and collects. Her recent work examines the interpretation of traditional quilt designs through “gestured appliquéd lines” and the quilting stitch.
