Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2018 – #4

Square in a Square Chintz Crib Quilt, North Carolina,
c. 1800, 38.75″ x 38″. Maker unknown.  Found on Liveauctioneers.

Remember what I said about loved and worn.  That certainly is this quilt.  But there is still so much to love about it despite it’s worn state.  Delicate is a word that comes to mind.  Whoever designed it used a very light hand making the most of the few elements that they did use.

The central square and the borders while they look “empty” actually are filled with stuffed work.  The central square has a basket filled with fruit and the border work details vine and berry motifs.  If you look closely you can see the shadows of these elements. 

One of the things I like about this design is how the inner triangles on the outer border are a lighter shade than the outer border.  This detail gives definition to the border, helping to frame the wonderful stuff work that it contains, but at the same time not ensuring that it does not compete visually with the red borders that are right next to it.  This allows the red borders to form the wonderful graphic lines that they do in the centre of the quilt.  

And those triangles.  Give me a good tiny triangle any day to make my heart sing!

Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2018 – #3

Lone Star Crib Quilt, Berks County, Pennsylvania, c. 1920-1930, 40″ x 41″. Photo from Pook and Pook.  From the collection of the Henry Ford Museum.

This quilt is exquisite in design and execution and it is easy to understand why it formed part of an important private collection at one point and is now part of a museum collection.  It is not easy to create that “burst” and feeling of energy in this design (experience speaking).  This quilt succeeds splendidly.  You might think it is just about value, but it is also all about the colour.  This example glows, executed in the bright and clear colours typical of Berks County where it was made. The half stars are the perfect touch adding a delicate feel as they help encircle the central star and complete the composition.

Part of the fun of researching antique quilts is following the path of guardianship.  It has been particularly easy with many of these crib quilts, partly I think because I am looking at a smaller pool of quilts.  

This quilt went to auction in 2012, along with a full size Morning Star quilt that matches it (but with way more pieces! I am so happy they stayed together when they were sold).  The auction listing gave a date of c. 1900 (although the museum has it dated as 1920-1930) and that it is machine and hand stitched with quilting at 8 stitches per inch.   It also noted that this quilt was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in 1977 … it has some “cred”.  That is a lot of fantastic information for a auction listing.  The previous owners cared a lot.

These quilts happily ended up at the Henry Ford Museum.  Which leads me to say thank you. Thank you to those who collect and protect these quilts for future generations, be you an individual or a museum.  We are so grateful.  

Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2018 – #2

Babies In Branches, c. 1930, 51″ x 33 1/2″, Found on Liveauctioneers. Maker unknown.

Okay, so technically not quite an antique yet (since it does not meet the “older than 100 years” criteria), I still have to include this because it is so lovely.  This style of quilt was commonly made from a kit that supplied pre printed background fabric and preprinted coloured fabrics making the appliqué process a bit easier.  

I like the controlled palette, the sweet scene, and the chubby cheeks! The design uses all the different elements expertly to create a wonderfully balanced and pleasing composition.  And the scalloped border … well let’s just say I have a soft spot for scalloped borders.

I don’t know a lot about this style of quilt, but this one makes me want to do more research now.  

Twelve Quilts of Christmas 2018 – #1

This year I think was my most challenging year for deciding which quilts to include in the Twelve Quilts of Christmas.  In fact, I have run right up to the wire on this one … right up! “How do I not include this one?” I have asked myself many times over, as I have been sifting through all the candidates.   That being said, chose I had to, so here we go for 2018 … The Twelve Quilts of Christmas … Crib Quilts.

Precious because they were made for a sweet new soul, the examples of antique crib quilts that remain today are to be especially cherished because ultimately there are fewer of these small wonders that have survived the years compared to quilts in general.  Often worn to pieces, tattered and stained, these “lovies” and “comfies” have pulled at my heart stings more than any other genre of antique quilts that I have gathered together for this event. Of course, the fact that some are stunning specimens of tiny piecing contributes to that feeling I am sure! Many examples I found were afterthoughts in auction listings, quickly laid on the floor, as an add-on, in front of more glamourous or eye-catching larger quilts that fill the auction photo listing. It makes them difficult to see but I am certain they are none the less valuable for the lessons these diminutive wonders could teach us.  All in all though, the searching was so much fun and I found tons of inspiration.

So much emotion is wrapped up in these quilts that I have had to really stop to consider what, beyond that patina of love and time, is drawing me to a specific example.  I have seriously been exercising my “antique quilt study muscle” as I parsed the options.  Sometimes we do not see the value in a quilt or what lessons it has to offer, until we really look at it, or someone points out the interesting bits to us.  

So in the end, how did I choose?  The same way I always do … the ones that make my heart skip a beat, that make me gasp with delight, that leave me in awe, or that have me searching deep into my computer because I have the image of a certain quilt firmly in my brain and I know it is on the hard-drive somewhere!  In looking over all the choices, I can see that I have also mostly chosen quilts that are compositionally “complete” and often scaled down versions of designs we would find in larger quilts.  Not that I don’t love the orphan block versions of crib quilts or the humble four patch and nine patch quilt examples.  They all set my heart a flutter with their distinctive charm.  As I said, it was challenging year to choose.

I hope you will join me everyday from now until the 25th for a celebration of crib quilts.  Enjoy!

Postage Stamp and Triangle Quilt, found in Pennsylvania, Caman Family provenance, late 19th Century, 35″ x 35″. Found on LiveAuctioneers

Lively, cheerful and bright … oh this sweet example of the humble four patch!

Looking at this one I think it was constructed as four patches that were then joined to form what I will refer to here as a central composition.  Then extra “rows” of larger four patches were added on to the top, right and bottom sides of that central composition to make it a bit bigger.  

I love how there is “puddling” of colour that occurs where the yellows and blues have ended up “congregating” in areas of the quilt.  This massing of colour generates a wonderful movement and visual flow, and is a great example of what I call the “random theory of quilting” at work.  

In the borders, three square cornerstones were used in the inner triangle border and then a half square triangle was used for the fourth corner, adding a moment of unpredictability!   Fun was had with the triangles in the borders.  The half square triangles in the upper and lower inner triangle border help round out the measurements and make this border fit.  And finally, the orientation of the half square triangles in the upper and lower left corners of the outer border give the illusion of quarter square triangles that “match” the others in the border. 

I think they were working it out as they went along.  What is sure is that their creative processing made for a very lively and happy quilt.