Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

Founded in 1984, the California Heritage Quilt Project was to engage in research and educational activities regarding California Quilts. Their initial project was to research quilts made and brought to California before 1945. More than four thousand quilts were documented during the hunt for these quilts, a treasure trove of legacy. Another project the organization tackled was the California Sesquicentennial Quilt. A logistical feat of harnessing 230 quilt artists to create a single masterpiece. Board Member Helen S. Powell agreed to be coordinator of the project. Instead of dividing up the project into individual quilt blocks to be assembled later, lead quilt artists Zena Thorpe and Ellen Heck decided to create a pictorial style quilt. One artist took charge of “Northern California”, the other artist took “Southern California” and they “joined” it around Santa Barbara. Quilts...

The Cloth that Changed the World: The Art and Fashion of Indian Chintz was an exhibition created by the Royal Ontario Museum of Toronto Canada. I wanted to see the exhibit very badly, but a trip to Toronto really didn’t fit in my travel schedule. I had to make do with the exhibition catalog, until the St. Louis Art Museum decided to showcase the exhibit in a joint venture which is up through Jan 8th, 2023. My sister Kay and I made that trip happen. It was worth every second of the drive across the state. We got to see some fantastic palampores, textiles, and Indian Chintz. The exhibit was wonderful about showing the textiles in groupings that were produced for different markets or countries. The St. Louis Art Museum also threw in an amazing surprise,...

At the Houston Quilt Festival this year there was a grouping of quilts called Tactile Architecture which had several unique approaches to the theme. It made me ponder the use of architecture in quilts. Certainly, we see the use of buildings in the Baltimore Album Quilts using applique to create the buildings. In fact, it was sometimes the buildings which helped trace the quilt's origins.   The Tristan Quilt, also known as the Guicciardini Quilt is one of the earliest surviving quilts and re-creates scenes from the story of Tristan and Isolde. It tells the tragic story of two doomed lovers through a wholecloth quilt using trapunto to depict scenes from the tale, including a castle. Therefore the presence of architecture can be traced down through quilting history.   The techniques used to create the buildings...

Applique is fabric applied or "laid on" to a background fabric. The technique has been around for centuries and used on clothing, tents, animal blankets and other everyday items. One of the older surviving examples of applique is an Egyptian canopy quilt from 980. B.C. Different cultures developed different uses for applique and in the US the development of a “quilt culture” supported a long history of applique. The applique quilt is usually “designed” as opposed to leftover scraps pieced together randomly. Applique quilts can be made of a repeated block or an album with a variety of different block patterns. An applique quilt may even be used to tell a story with different blocks having symbols or representing a family history. The rise of the Baltimore Album Quilt solidified the art form in the US...

My love of birds is well established. In fact, at a recent professional retreat where several of us were working on the Triplett Sisters Wedding Album Quilt, I discussed making a few changes to make the quilt tell my story better. One of the other pros said, “so are you adding more birds?” The Houston Quilt Festival had lots of birds for my eyes to enjoy.  However, I saw several quilts that even expanded the use of birds in unique ways, such as focusing on a feather. Another focused on the habitat for the birds, a hedgerow.  I loved the different examinations of the wonderful theme of birds. Clearly there are many techniques that can be used to create birds. Also, many ways to explore the presence of birds in the world within your quilt. Are...