unbroken circle

Today I finished up an order of some cards for Intouch therapy centre

which Jill has asked for her reception area to use with her gift tokens. The card stand is an intermediate solution until I find a better one - at least it's made from recycled card and keeps them tidy & visible.

These catalogues arrived in the post this last week from Barbara, who had a friend pick them up at the Birmingham quilt show.

Both are written by Eli Leon about the African-American quilting tradition, and most specifically in "Something Pertaining to God" about the quilt artist Rosie Lee Tompkins also known as Effie Mae Howard.

I've been meaning to post about them all this week, and just got round to it, when I also received the latest copy of Quiltmania (a condition I think I'm slowly developing). Another little circle in my head closed when I noticed p16 featured an article by Eli Leon on this same artist, which had appeared at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. In this funny little Typepad world, I've been visiting this blog this week, (one of last week's featured Typepad blogs) - and thinking how idyllic that little village looked with it's Quilting museum...and it's the same one.

What I love about these quilts is that they embrace irregularity and don't overplan. I'm sometimes torn between the thought of starting a quilt or a piece of work, and the impatience of seeing it come together or that I will lack the technical skill. One quilter, Laverne Brackens "can cut out the pieces for three quilt tops in a day and 'go back the next day and maybe do two of them'. If she feels like it, she can do all three, but it will take her until midnight." I stand in awe of this, and would like a little bit of that technique!

I suppose the difference is between the planning and arranging of a formal quilt, and a more intuitive responsive, almost sculpting or sketching process which is immediate - organic?

I am particularly fond of this by Rosie Lee Tompkins..

which is a wallhanging, but would make a great skirt! The 'punk appliqué style could be Vivien Westwood...

I find these works and those by the Gee's Bend quilters inspiring and energetic. Artwork critic Alison Bling wrote of Tompkins "These quilts are works of such distinction and devotion, ...they supersede established art-historical categories, forcing reviewers to retreat to that dumbfounded admiration that attracted us to art in the first place."

Comments

[VictoriaE]

I realised I could make patchwork when I didn't have to plan anything, just go for it. It's a bit of a revelation isn't it!

[Sally Anne]

Thank you for posting about these amazing artworks.The Quilters of Gees Bend are a wonderful inspiration.I love that they only use what they have or can swap or make do..no buying up fabric stashes for them. I found them all very humbling but awe inspiring too.