Architect of Quilts

In Amsterdam there is a charming, more than four century old canal house (yes, over 400 years old) where the original architect of quilts lives with her artist husband. Up three flights of narrow stairs, (it was tempting to count the steps, but instead I focused on simply making it to the attic workshop without falling), a quilt artist extraordinaire works in her lair creating 3-d quilts.

In the early 1970’s, Lucie Huig-Dunnebier began quilting creating three dimensional quilts. Since then she has explored various dimensional elements: raised graphics, pockets to hold treasures, windows with shutters to hide lovers, and more, pushing the dimensional boundaries of a quilt. Some of her crib quilts hung one way reveal the day colors with the sun. The same quilt hung upside down reveals the moon and the stars in night colors. In each quilt is an amazing technical display of sewing proficiency matching all the stripes or tiny piecing if not enough fabric.

One of her quilts explores the spectrum of colors with a dimensional base of indigo. Another quilt hides the dimensional elements until explored up close and personal. At eighty-six she has continued to quilt and explore the “next” dimension, wondering why more don’t create 3-d quilts. When I hesitantly mentioned that I also explore 3-d, she was very excited to hear, but quickly reminded me that she was first! No doubt about it, she will forever be first with her unique quilt artistry of the dimensions.