I just returned from the awe-inspiring Amish Abstractions Quilting Exhibit at San Francisco's de Young Museum. I have seen pictures of these hand-crafted masterpieces, but it's really neat to examine them in-person.
A few observations about these incredible quilts:
PIECING: There was a very wide variety of quilts in the display. Some quilt tops were very simple - almost broadcloth. But some quilt tops were made up of very intricate piecing. The log cabin quilts in particular were not huge "chunky" log cabins, rather they were teeny, tiny log cabins ... maybe 1/4"-wide strips, which means the actual strips used were almost certainly less than an inch wide. The final tiny log cabin blocks were only maybe two inches square. It was phenomenal.
QUILTING: The quilting was ridiculously intricate on all the quilts. Even the ones that just had cross-hatch quilting had stitches maybe every inch apart ... not every four-to-six inches like I do mine - ha! And the actual stitches are just tiny indented dots on the fabric - you can't even see the thread unless you're looking. All of the thread used appears to be black (or at least really dark) no matter the colors of fabrics used.
STYLE: The quilts from the Midwest were obviously different in style from the quilts made in the larger Amish communities on the East Coast. The literature talked about how the Amish families that moved to the Midwest for farmland were smaller groups, so they became more integrated into their non-Amish neighborhoods and communities. That culture change resulted in an actual visual, aesthetic change in their artwork and creativity. Shows how influential our community is even without us knowing it.
It was a really interesting display - be sure to check it out before June 6 if you're in the Bay Area!
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