Favorite

This is arguably my most favorite quilt.  I don't know where it is, if it's privately owned or in a museum somewhere. We don't know who made it, but it was made about 1900 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  It's 78" square made of wool and exquisitely hand quilted with black thread.

I'm reading a lot about Amish Abstractions, and my mind keeps coming back to this beauty. The vibrant colors just hit me. The simple geometry, the utter abstractness, in one image absolutely defines what it is I love about quiltmaking.

Could I make a wonky version? Nope.


It's from the book Sunshine and Shadow: The Amish and their Quilts, by Phyllis Haders, Main Street Press, 1976.