Well, my goal to finish a quilt this summer is accomplished. The top, batting and backing are now assembled and quilted. To keep things interesting, it's made with fabrics from another time, and with colours and textures that are uncomfortable choices, (for me). Square and rectangle shapes are pieced haphazardly, with flimsy whites, garish yellows, fluorescent oranges, insipid blues, and faded greens. The backing is an old bed sheet (a bright lemon-green floral, no less), and the binding is made from old suiting material. Well, I am known to say the best puns are so bad, they become good again, and that's true for this quilt.
I am thinking about the wonderful quilts made by the women who live in the remote community of Gee’s Bend in Alabama. They have been making their quilts since the time of the American Civil War. "Discovered" just a few decades ago, their works became gallery darlings, touted as assured, modern and abstract art. We see how Gee's Bend women made bold and artful choices about colour, form, and composition long before the modernists. The composition is considered and improvised, the workmanship sometimes raw, and always made with used materials. At some point during the 1970s, they use remnants from a local Sears factory in lush, brilliantly-coloured corduroy quilts. Their work is always gorgeous and broadens our sense of what art can be.
I am thinking about the wonderful quilts made by the women who live in the remote community of Gee’s Bend in Alabama. They have been making their quilts since the time of the American Civil War. "Discovered" just a few decades ago, their works became gallery darlings, touted as assured, modern and abstract art. We see how Gee's Bend women made bold and artful choices about colour, form, and composition long before the modernists. The composition is considered and improvised, the workmanship sometimes raw, and always made with used materials. At some point during the 1970s, they use remnants from a local Sears factory in lush, brilliantly-coloured corduroy quilts. Their work is always gorgeous and broadens our sense of what art can be.