Rob Peter to Pay Paul, Possibly Pennsylvania, United States, c. 1880, 80.25” x 69.5”, Maker unknown. IQM Object Number: 2009.039.0009.
This quilt has been referred to as having a “constantly surprising” composition. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Vibrant and engaging, the pattern in this Amish wool quilt is usually done in just 2 colours, but not this one! There is an attempt at patterning, but substitutions have been made in some blocks. Notice the sixth block down in the righthand column, and how similar the values of the two colours are. It is balanced by the very light background of the final block in the fifth column from the left. And note that there is not a lot of the forest green, but the composition of the quilt definitely needs what little there is to provide interest and more variety.
What do you think of this quilt? Do the colours they used surprise given when the quilt was made?
Cross Roads to Bachelor’s Hill, Tennessee? (maybe Kansas), United States, c. 1885, 63” x 78”, Made by Eliza Hensley Johnson. Location unknown (Can you help? Let us know where it is now.) Quilt Index Record Number: 22-18-1290.
This quilt feels so layered and dimensional, almost like you could reach through the grid and wiggle your hand through the holes and touch the background. Value is doing all the hard lifting to create this effect. The design is very similar to the quilt on Day 3, but isn’t it interesting how just a few changes renders it completely different.
The corners have been rounded but the binding is again on the straight of grain. I wonder how they handled the added fullness around those corners?
Can you imagine this quilt with a patterned fabric substituted where the cheddar fabric is? Do you think the quilt would have the same layered/dimensional effect? Would you use a large-scale print or a small-scale print?
Mariner’s Compass Quilt, Monroe County, Wisconsin, c. 1876, 73 ½” x 83”, Johanna Quillinen Lane and her daughter Elizabeth Ann Lane. Current location unknown.
This quilt caught my attention immediately the first time I saw it. I was intrigued by the colours. I was intrigued by the pattern. I was intrigued by the centres of each compass. And, the varying number of points in the blocks, simply. makes. my. liberated. quilting. heart. sing!
Also … Attention!!! … cheddar in the lower right block!
Would you be brave enough to have all the variation in compass points as this quiltmaker has done?
If you know the current location of this quilt, please let me know.
The Holen Boys Tie Quilt, United States, c. 1935, 94” x 81”. Made by someone in Holen Family(?). Location, potentially Nebraska Prairie Museum of the Phelps County Historical Society/The Holen Family.
The centre of the quilt has embroidered on it “This is the Holen Boys Necktie Quilt”. Almost a hundred silk ties were used to make this energetic quilt that compels us to engage visually with its dynamic design.
The use of red in the design helps to define the shape of the ties in the first two rounds and draws the eye to the message in the centre, prompting us to ponder, as Roderick Kiracofe and Sandi Fox wrote, in Going West: Quilts and Community, “Who were the Holen boys? How did they have so many neckties, and why did they surrender them for this quilt?” The mix of other colours used in the remaining rounds, instead of red, to fill in the shape of the ties, adds a delightful complexity to the composition and forms a strong supporting base for the central part of the design.
This dynamic quilt was not easy to sew. Silk is slippery and flowing, even silk used for ties. The maker was not deterred when they made this quilt.
Don’t you wish you knew more about this quilt and why it was made? #labelyourquilts and #includeyourstory
This Pine Burr quilt was made by Lucy Marie Mingo. The eminent quilt historian Cuesta Benberry said in an interview in 2007, “The design is savored especially by Southern African Americans, but it is not solely an African-American design. It does date to the 19th century. At that time, it was made by both with and black Americans, but it seems to have become an African-American design of choice – especially Southern, rural black make that quilt to display their expertise.”
The elaborate piecing technique, is composed of small triangles that are folded and sewn to a backing in a circle to form a low relief of scales, resembling a pine cone. In Gee’s Bend: The Women and Their Quilts they write: “This pattern for which the Bend has become fairly well know, may be the least typical quilt there. … In 1997, the Alabama legislature named the “Pine Burr” the official state quilt.”
Lucy Mingo was indeed a talented quilter who displayed a great attention to detail. Lucy was known to say, “if you don’t do something right, ain’t worth doing it”. Her husband’s aunt, China Grove Myles taught her the pattern as China as the only one left in Gee’s Bend who could sew the Pine Burr. Depending on the size of the finished quilt, because so much fabric is used in the folded design of each piece, a finished quilt can weigh up to 25 lbs!
Lucy’s colour combinations deeply intrigue me. I could simply study it for hours!
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.
