In the American Tradition - Pieced

This is part two of the special exhibition from the Houston Quilt Festival that focused on traditional quilts. This group of quilts are pieced but made recently. Our mother is fond of saying, “why would anyone cut up fabric to sew it back together again?” (The secret is out, our mother is not a quilter!) The answer to her question is apparent when you see the works of art created by sewing the pieces back together again.

“The Never Ending Project” by Barb Kissell and quilted by Meg Fasio is appropriately named. Because there are A LOT of pieces, more than 3,000. The Hunter Star block must have really inspired Barb, because she had only been quilting for two years when she decided to tackle this quilt. Clearly, she does not subscribe to my mother’s theory.

Except for the amazing yellow monochromatic quilt by Wilma Moss and Floyd Moss, I noticed I selected a lot of red quilts from the pieced category. Red is my favorite color, but it is clearly a favorite of other quilters too. One quilt that caught my eye was Red, White, and Stars, by Cheryl Degan and members of the Austin Area Quilt Guild, and quilted by Angela McCorkle. It is hard enough to keep the piecing consistent when one person is sewing, let alone a group.

Mary Markworth found a clever way to use 12 small blocks from a BOM challenge. Instead of making a smaller quilt or filling in with negative space blocks, she selected the Carpenter’s Wheel to create a center medallion. The piecing and the color combination created a nice blend of traditional but current. One more red quilt caught my eye. Red Hot by Deborah Ross because of the simplicity of the piecing (strips) but the complexity comes from the color ranges light to dark.