When you walk in to the Nelson gallery, first you see an array of pattern. Perhaps next, you will notice a plethora of colors. It’s only about two minutes after you see the surface beauty of these quilts that you realize the emotion and hard work that lies in this quilt. A few weeks back, Avis Robinson, a designer of some of the quilts came in to speak with our textiles class. When she spoke of her process, I realized what a personal process quilt making is. Putting the scraps of fabric together meant so much to her, because she described it as us putting pieces of history together and representing the lives of the individuals who once wore these clothes. This is something that makes you wonder, where did every piece of this fabric actually come from? Thinking about this, I am drawn to a quilt in particular. Why? It’s the only one which is obviously off center. The quilt is called “Log Cabin” and is made by Sandra McPherson. In the middle arranged in four large squares, you see little scraps of color that seem bright, but when you look closely, they are just pieces of dull printed fabrics, that when put together, bring life to the quilt. Who wore that pink checkered fabric? Was it from an apron of a hardworking mother? I notice on piece of fabric that has writing on it that if you didn’t stare at the quilt long enough, you might have missed this subtle hint of text. The text says “made in eng” and is cut off. This seemed so interestingly ironic to me. The satire of putting a label like this on a handmade quilt just attracted me more to the quilt. Surrounding the four big squares were long slivers of black and white, and in one corner, there was extra fabric, shifting the squares up an over, making it seem off center. The black and white effectively draws you in almost an inward spiral to the color. This quilt was designed imaginatively, and with wit, and keeps the viewer pondering about the off center design, making it unique from other quilts.
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