Let me first share curator Stacy C. Hollander’s label notes from the American Folk Art Museum exhibition “QUILTS: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum” when this quilt was displayed at in 2010.
“Wool, probably from military uniforms, with embroidery thread, rickrack, and velvet binding; inlaid, layered-appliqué, hand-embroidered.
This textile belongs to a group of bedcovers that are also known as military quilts or, sometimes, Crimean quilts. Most of the known examples were found in Great Britain, where they were traditionally made from wool fabric used in the production of military uniforms. During the second half of the nineteenth century, soldiers were encouraged to take up sewing as a useful alternative to the less salubrious pursuits of drinking and gambling. Sewing was also used as a form of therapy for soldiers injured in conflict and recuperating in hospitals.”
It is not surprise then, knowing the background of this quilt, that the notion of military precision comes to mind when I look at the skillful execution of this design. Aside from the amazing discipline to so masterfully put this quilt together, the maker also had an extraordinary eye for composition. This genre of soldier’s quilts reminds me of inlaid marquetry work, popular during the same period.
This quilt sparkles with energy, due in part to the placement of value, and to the motifs that have been used. The maker created wonderful relationships between the various elements. The large motifs in the fourth border are almost identically mirrored if the quilt was folded from lower left corner to upper right. In the second border, the small circle motifs are mirrored somewhat on the diagonal opposite, working across or down the border. And the simple choice to make the first row of half diamonds white, on the inside of the first border, creates a delicate sawtooth border that stands out because of the value choices in the next four rows, and allows that element to easily relate to the diamond border around the outer edge of the inner circle motif.
The diamonds in the third border share a similar situation to quilt #4 from this year. A shortage of green fabric has left the right side of that border bereft of this colour. Visually this does allow the eye to wander a little more easily off the composition, a respite from the complexity of the design, but the overall composition quickly draws you right back in.
Visually for me the first, second and third borders almost read as one, as my eye jumps between the centre area of interest and the fourth border of larger circle motifs.
Where do your eyes travel to with this quilt? What do you see that contributes to the stunning success of this quilt?
My eyes are first drawn to the quilting in this one. They worked out the quilting design very successfully, enlarging the quilting motif to fill the centre area of interest of the quilt, and then squishing and morphing the geometric designs so that they resolve neatly at the edges. It’s another great example of “more than one way into a castle,” but I think the quilt police might need some smelling salts.
The colours are only slightly muted with age. The use of the mustard gold colour in the wide outer border seems to intensify the brilliance of the blue. The red is the “shocker” here and is definitely a needed element that makes the quilt visually successful. Again, it is the lesson of “take it away and the quilt would miss it.” The same stands true for the pale yellows, the very pale beige and the green. They just all work together so beautifully.
There are sweet examples of piecing within some of the “solid” blocks, to get the block to finish the right size to fit into the quilt. The use of the tiniest bit of print in first and second borders, and just a titch in the third border is a fascinating detail.
There is an interplay between borders that is worthy of noting. The sharing of the browns in the third and fourth borders is unifying element. Notice the two-sided asymmetry of the fourth border? If we have tended to think of medallion quilts as being square and symmetrical, we definitely being proven wrong.
The fifth border at the bottom which shares colour elements with fourth border and with the final gold outer border achieves two goals. It first tricks the eye into reading that the bottom final border is the same width as the upper border and lends the appearance that the pieced composition is centred vertically. It also anchors the border to the lower outer border, while at the same time unifying it to the central pieced composition, creating this tension of balance in the overall composition of the quilt. Sophisticated application of some wonderful ideas.
It goes without saying that the visual appeal of this is intensified by the handpiecing and the lack of everything being squared up.
Patchwork Coverlet (no batting), Friesland, Netherlands c. 1790-1800, 210 cm. x 182 cm., Maker unknown. From the collection of the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Inv. No. 1937-316.
Simple repetition, expertly executed, defines this quilt, but it’s apparent simplicity belies its complexity that is at the root of its beauty. I have always liked this quilt since I first saw it, and having the time to dive deeper into it, to present it to you, enlightens me as to why.
Let’s take a closer look at the rounds of borders, or frames, rippling out from the centre. The alternating light and dark borders create a soothing rhythm as does the harmonious collection of fabrics used in each border. The second border is comprised of medium value fabrics that differentiate themselves just ever so slightly from the first and third borders. This use of value allows the rhythm to appear unbroken, while creating a more open lighter area for the centre area of interest to visually have room to breathe. The maker also skillfully used placement of colour in the second border to add visual interest and movement. Notice that the sixth border is also just ever so slightly lighter than the other darker borders, again not breaking the rhythm but definitely surprising the eye with its subtle difference. The final border with the blue triangles adds the bit of calm respite the quilt needs from the measure visual flow across the quilt, and helps to contain the design by the very nature of its difference from all the other colours in the quilt. That and the fact that the long edge of the blue triangles surround the outside edge of the quilt.
And finally, that centre star. At first you might not perceive that the spikes of the star fall ever so slightly off the centre medallion background into the first border. A tiny but not insignificant detail. The star is appliquéd on thereby avoiding the need for piecing the star into the background, and attaching the star this way allows the encroachment, as if the energy of the star was too much for the centre of the quilt to contain.
Unusual Abstract Design, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK, c. 1910, 196 x 220 cm, Maker: Mrs. Annie Davies. From the collection of Jen Jones.
Well doesn’t this one just make your eyes want to pop. Trust a Welsh quilt made in 1910 to be quilting like it’s 2020! Or wait, is it the other way around? Are some of us quilting now like it is 1910?
At first glance it seems like a bit of chaos in the middle of this quilt, but there is indeed a centre area of interest, a square on point, surround by a striped first border. Do you see the patterning in these stripes that makes it work so well?
I love, love, love the half-square triangles in the next border, some rotated and some made to fit with coping strips. The “co-ordinated” corner stones try to work to calm the whole thing down. Two borders top and bottom are used for vertical asymmetry here. And finally that bold pieced border. What fun!
Jen notes, that this is an “unusual abstract design in psychedelic colours made in 1910 by Mrs. Annie Davies in her flat above a drapers shop in Chaleabite Street, Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire. She supplied quilts to various shops in the local area.” (My note: Chaleabite is also known as Chalybeate)
A little bit about Jen Jones if you don’t know about her. She has the world’s expert on Welsh quilts, and has the largest and by far hands down best collection of Welsh quilts in the world. An American transplanted to the UK many, many years ago, she came upon some Welsh quilts shortly after moving there and began collecting and preserving what were at the time neglected, discarded and not very highly prized treasures of Welsh quilting heritage. Thank goodness she took up that torch. You can find out more about Jen’s book on Welsh quilts here. Her museum, in Lampeter, Wales, where she exhibits her quilts, is a must stop for anyone who loves quilts and is travelling in the UK. And stop by the café beside the museum, at the very least for some Welsh cakes and tea. You won’t be sorry.
Pieced Quilt, Tide Mill Pattern, Ossining, New York, c. 1785-1810, 97” x 91”, 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?
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.
