Rising Star Quilt Guild Show

Coneflower Boogie Woogie, detail.

On October 4, 2019, family and I went the Rising Star Quilt Guild show, held in a church in Lexington, Massachusetts. Here's a selection from the 118 quilts on display. The lighting is a challenge in this venue, so there were some quilts I loved which were just too hard to photograph.

Coneflower Boogie Woogie, Judy Botsford.

 

Every style of quilting was on display, including modern quilting, generally characterized by a lack of borders, lots of negative space, tonal or solid fabrics, and intricate machine quilting.  Often modern quilts are based on traditional designs, such as Flying Geese or Pinwheels. Another genre of modern quilt is the map quilt, an fiber interpretation of geography.

Prisms, Corinne Steigenwald.

Gregarious Greylags, Kathleen McCormick.

Gregarious Greylags, detail showing quilting.

The Main Event, Laura diNapoli.

Coins, Louise Rains.

Coins, detail.

Etoile pour Oliver, Carol Miller.

Autumn Tumbling Blocks, Barbara Salamy.

Blossom, Christina Crouch.

Baby Quilt #2, Kate O'Leary.

Baby Quilt #2, detail.

Boston, Peggy Boning.

Boston, detail [note Logan airport.]

Vendors at the show.

Some of the quilt designs are very personal.  The image below is of the artist's mother.  Atara Halpern's quilt Synapse, following, is a visual exploration of the work of neuroscientist Santiago Roman y Cajal.

Trudie, Denise Konicek.

Synapse, Atara Halpern.

Synapse, detail.

The thread-painted quilt below captures a calm moment with two beloved pets.

Fredlet and Tommy, Betsy Habich.

The floral fabric used in the floral portrait below was made by the artist decades ago - in a class where she first met her husband.

How We Met, Cathy Papazian.

How We Met, detail.

Waterfowl Pond at San Francisco Botanical Garden, Amy Breiting.

Waterfowl Pond at San Francisco Botanical Garden, detail.

The quilt above doesn't try for photographic realism but rather an impression of shapes and color; the irregular border adds to the feeling of observant improvisation.

Some quilts celebrated a rainbow of colors; other works have an Asian theme.

Ombre, Christina Crouch.

Scrap Bag Fiesta, Bonnie Newman.

Speak Softly to Me, Evelyn Rossin.

Asian Harmony, Missy Shay.

Several quilts combined piecing and applique.

Field of Poppies, Tamara Jessiman.

Dresden, Dorien Keusseyan.

Dresden, detail.

Prosperity, Nancy Wasserman.

Prosperity, detail.

According to Nancy Wasserman, in Victorian times occupants of a new home would place a tomato on the mantle, for good luck. If no actual tomato was available, in those pre-Wegman's days, a tomato pincushion would substitute.

Enjoying the quilts.

Two of the quilts were both made in a Block of the Month (BOM) series offered by the Cambridge Quilt Shop. Precut packets are sent out to participants; the completed blocks are set and bordered as desired. The pattern is Vintage Farm Girl, and it's neat to see the two interpretations, and the sheep block is adorable.

Farm Girl in Shades of Blue and Gray, Susan Dresley.

Cambridge Quilt Shop Block of the Month [Vintage Farm Girl], Lolita Elverrillo.

Cambridge Quilt Shop BOM [Vintage Farm Girl], detail.

Of course, there are all sorts of intriguing color combinations.  Some classic, like blue, white and yellow, and some more unexpected but powerful, like the teal and fuschia quilt below, which includes blocks with fussy-cut centers.

Green and Pink Stacked Posies, Phyllis Maddox.

Green and Pink Stacked Posies, detail.

Moody Blues Hunter's Star, Laura diNapoli.

Reach for the Stars, Evelyn Rossin.

Some quilters have decided that the more, the merrier, when it comes to color - delightful - while others employ a monochromatic tonal palette, calm and elegant.

Postage Stamp Quilt, Peter Stringham.

Have Fun!, Nancy Soyring. (partial view)

Leaves, Clare Gordon.

Leaves, detail.

Another view of the show.

The quilt below, a tour de force of the kaleidoscope-style of quilt-making, won the People's Choice Award.

Kaleidoscopes, Margaret Hallisey.

Kaleidoscopes also appear in one of my personal favorites, below. All in all, a tremendous show.

Kaleidoscope Kats [sic], Becky Toland.

"Dear Jane" quilt at Bennington Museum

"Dear Jane" quilt, detail.

In October DH and I headed to Vermont; he practiced casting a fly-fishing rod, and I made a beeline to the Bennington Museum, to see the "Dear Jane" quilt, one of the museum's masterpieces.  The quilt is on display for only a short time each year, in a  gallery with very low light levels, to help prevent fading.  The museum is noted for a number of collection areas - it has the largest collection of Grandma Moses paintings as well as an informative display and study center relating to Bennington pottery.  However, for textile enthusiasts the museum is a place of pilgrimage for this singular quilt, made in 1863 by Jane A. Stickles (1817-1896).

Quilt carefully displayed for a short time each year.

The quilt is a "sampler quilt"; that is, the design is a grid of unique pieced or appliqued blocks, as opposed to a grid of like-patterned blocks. From the display text:

Jane Stickle's ambitious quilt is made up of 169 five-inch blocks, each in a different pattern and using a different fabric.  Many of the block patterns are commonly seen in quilts from this era, however many more are unique, drafted by a skilled needle worker with a mastery of geometry.  Jane recycled a linen sheet from her mother, Sarah Blakely, for the majority of the quilt's backing.  The initials "S B" are embroidered in tiny cross-stitches on one of the scallops at the quilt's back edge, originally intended to identify the linen's owner.

Jane Stickle entered this quilt in the 1863 Bennington County Agricultural Fair.  In the Bennington Banner's article on the fair, her quilt received special notice:

Mrs. J. B. Smith of Manchester, Mrs. Taft and Mrs. Stickles presented each a very extra bed quilt.  Mrs. Stickles is an invalid lady, having been for a long time confined to her bed, but her ambition to do something to kill the time induced her to piece this quilt.  It contains many thousand different pieces of cloth, no two of which are exactly alike.  Upon one corner is marked in plain letters, "made in the war of 1863."

A week later, on October 8, the Bennington Banner published a list of premiums awarded at the fair.  In the "Ladies Section" it is noted that the "Best patched quilt" was awarded to "Mrs. W. P. Stickles" with a prize of $2, about $40 in today's money.

Quilt, behind velvet rope, as befits a celebrity.

Green circle block has yellow blocks in the "north south east and west" positions.

As I looked closely at the quilt I began to notice  the careful deployment of color in the composition. For instance, look at the center green square above, pieced in four circular segments. Above, below, and to the right and left of this block the pieced blocks feature yellow fabrics. Moving diagonally from the green block, the blocks next to the yellow ones are pieced using brown fabrics.  In the image below, blocks pieced from red fabrics are adjacent to the afore-mentioned brown blocks, with pink blocks next to these red-based designs.  Colors form diagonals, animating the grid.

Brown, red, pink blocks carefully placed.

Color placement was carefully considered, and results in a quilt not just noteworthy for the incredible number of pieces stitched into blocks.  Although as many aesthetic decisions are involved in needlework design as in "fine art," art history has not always acknowledged such skill.  Until relatively recently,  curators and scholars may have admired the technical skill exhibited in a particular textile and researched its provenance, but had little to note with regard to design.  It was almost as if the art historical world thought that women, rather than making  decisions with regard to color, form, negative/positive space, etc.,  just responded to some instinctive compulsion, like weaver birds making elaborate nests.

Quilt.

I don't know how this quilt came to be known as the "Dear Jane" quilt, but this artifact has inspired a cottage industry, including a book, as well as  patterns and templates for those wishing to make their own Stickles quilt. I had hoped to buy the book at the museum, but the volume is currently out of print.

Detail, scallop border.

One particularly delightful element of the quilt  is the scallop border, with wedge-shaped pieced and solid blocks. The curve of the scallops creates a bit of tension with the square grid, and is a masterful touch.

Scalloped border, detail.

Corner detail.

Bennington Museum, home of the Stickles quilt.