Quilts and Color

Recently I was blessed to be able to take a trip up New England. It was one of the best vacation trips I've ever taken and I cherish each day. One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to the Quilts and Color exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with my aunt & uncle and friends.

Here is a short narrative from the museum introducing the exhibit, "Quilts and Color presents more than sixty graphically bold American quilts from the Pilgrim/Roy collection, one of the finest and largest collections of quilts in the world."

Wow! How to describe this exhibit...it was amazing...inspirational...and gave strong evidence to how the roots of quilting are really not so very different than what quilters are making today...be that traditional, contemporary, and even modern style quilts. 

We had no idea the collector, Gerald Roy, was going to be leading a narrated tour of the exhibit that day...what a treat! I tried to get a picture of him, but flash photography was not permitted and none of my photographs of Mr. Roy turned out. 

Here is just a small sample of the beautiful quilts on display at the museum:

Bunches of Grapes. Ohio about 1875

In this Bunches of Grapes applique numerous design elements {Optical Illusions} come and go from your focus on the quilt: The individual blocks with four bunches of grapes, the green circles formed by the leaves, and the large off-white diamonds created by the negative space. When I look at this quilt my eyes are in constant motion all over the top and don't really find one individual spot to settle down on.

Thousand Pyramids. Amish; Holmes County, Ohio, about 1930

Many of the featured quilts, such as Thousand Pyramids, exhibited sophisticated use of color and design {Harmony}. Mr. Roy pointed out that these quilts were made by accomplished women who understood the intricate details of fine design such as selecting a mix of fabrics that stand out or recede, and careful attention to placement. In our day and age these same women would probably be accountants, doctors, architects, and engineers (his words, not mine.)

Center Medallion Tied Child's Comforter, Missouri, 1910

Looking at this wool medallion quilt (note the bold orange ties!) one would think it was straight from an Instagram, flickr, or blog feed, and yet it was made 104 years ago! This quilt happens to be my favorite from the exhibit and falls into the {Singular Vision} grouping. This grouping features quilt makers who..."audaciously employed unconventional colors, materials, or techniques to make their individual statements." I can guess that this particular quilt was quite unconventional for 1910 both in the color choices, the design of the top, and the color choice for the ties. It's brilliant!

I hope you enjoyed this mini tour of the Quilts and Color exhibit. If you find yourself with the opportunity to go see this exhibit be sure to seize it :o)

~Quotes come from the Quilts and Color museum program. 

February Finish - A Lovely Year of Finishes

I was beginning to think I would not have a finish to report for the month of February...some months are like that. At the beginning of February I entered this Granny Square quilt as my Lovely Year of Finishes February Goal (No. 7).  But, right here at the end of the month I refocused my efforts and determined that this quilt just needed to be finished. 

I have to admit that I am truly smitten with this quilt. It has quite a story behind it which you can read about here. The granny squares are made from scraps of vintage clothing belonging to a sweet friend. These vintage fabrics really lend themselves to this particular quilt block.

My goal focused on getting the backing, quilting, and binding finished. I chose stitch in the ditch quilting on the diagonal in both directions. I felt this would allow the vintage fabrics to really be the focus of this quilt. 

Here is a final picture of the quilt all rolled up, because who does not like to see a quilt roll?

I am linking up with the February Finishes Party. Okay...bring on March...I'm ready!

 

February in A Lovely Year of Finishes

I can hardly believe we are already up to February 2014! January was one of the coldest months I remember, and here in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains we had a fair amount of snow. With all of the snow days off school I was able to breeze right through my January ALYoF goal...we'll see how I do for February :o)

This month my goal is to finish this vintage patchwork quilt. There is a story behind this patchwork. This partial quilt top was found among the craft items belonging to the mom of a sweet friend from church. It is made of bits of fabric from her children's clothing and dates back to about the 1950's. 

My friend asked if it could be made into a finished quilt. When I looked at it I knew it would need to be disassembled and reassembled in order to make a sturdy quilt. Many of the seams had been stitched with less than 1/8" seam allowance and were already coming apart. It took several sessions with the seam ripper, but with perseverance I got them all apart. 

I knew these bits of fabric would look lovely in a granny square layout. (The little flowers are tablecloth weights--it was bitterly cold and extremely windy when I took this picture!) Most of the the fabrics are soft shades so I used Kona Cotton Bone for the background. I love how visually soft the top now looks!

My February goal is to complete this quilt. I purchased additional Kona Bone for the backing and DS Quilts Farm Stand Dots in beige for the binding. I plan on doing diagonal straight lines for the quilting using an off-white thread. 

I'm looking forward to getting this one off my work-in-process list. I'm linking up the the February Goal Party for A Lovely Year of Finishes!