Yesterday I went to the supermarket and did a few boring household chores. I felt I had done my good deeds for the day and thought I'd treat myself to the Jan-Feb issue of Fons and Porter's, which I'm sure came out in the US ages ago but we have only just gotten here. I went home and unpacked the groceries, made a cuppa and got ready for one of my favourite things - a new quilting magazine.
The first thing I turned to was Gerald Roy's column, This Old Quilt, which is just about my favourite thing to read in any quilting magazine anywhere in the world. You can read a great article about him here.
For his column, Gerald picks a quilt from his extensive antique quilt collection each month and writes a column using the quilt as an example of whatever aspect of quilting he is writing about. This month's column, Too Much Sugar for a Dime, happens to be about hand quilting.
This quilt was made in 1936 by an unknown quilter and is in the collection of the International Quilt Study Center in Ohio.
The gyst of the article is that Gerald was recently judging a show, when his fellow judges began to debate about the level of quilting in the show. He expressed his view, which was basically that in times past, quilting was purely for stabilising the batting, which in those times was not able to withstand wear or washing. It was several decades before quilting was actually used as decoration or to enhance design. Although amazing battings are available today, quilting is actually still for exactly this purpose. The show he was at contained many over worked, over quilted, over designed quilts that were too busy and complex. He says:
"It is such a pleasure to see contemporary quilts that exhibit not only expert execution, but restraint in the number of techniques used. As a judge, I always love to hear that sigh of relief when such a quilt appears."
This quilt is also in the International Quilt Study Center. It is a Whig Rose pattern, probably made by Del Patterson between 1895 and 1905.
This touched such a chord with me. Although I fully appreciate the work and technical expertise that goes into many heavily machine quilted or extremely complex pieces, for my money the quilts that make me gasp are the ones that are beautiful in their simplicity.
By simplicity I don't mean plain fabrics, or big pieces, or wholecloth - I just mean that the quilt maker has concentrated on getting her message across by perfecting her idea. The quilting serves to enhance the piecing, or raise the applique, the colour is balanced and the components are working together. These are the quilts that I stand in front of for long moments, staring at the composition and printing the things that work for it into my mind for the next time I am tempted to over-design or over-complicate.
Also from the Quilt Study Center. It's a Log Cabin, Chimney and Cornerstone pattern, by an unknown maker between 1890 and 1900.
I think this is why so many of us keep coming back to antique quilts. Wether through nessecity, trend or personal preference, many antique quilt books are filled with quilts such as these that make me smile and hesitate to turn the page.
Anyway, that's just my 10 cents. Get a copy of the magazine and have a read, it's a great article, and there's also another very interesting one on machine quilting by Dawn Cavanaugh. Feel free to disagree!
Stay tuned for the curved piecing tutorial I promised tomorrow and don't forget to comment on Friday, Saturday or Sunday to be in the next weekly draw.
Sarah x
PS all the quilts shown above are from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum's Quilt of the Month program. This is a great, free service where you sign up and each month they email you a pic of a quilt from their collection. I usually put the quilt onto my desktop so that every time I turn the computer on I get a stunning new quilt to look at, that changes each month. Sign up it's really fun!
