Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women

“Mine was a little . . .

different.”

Fig. 2.12 Ocean Waves, ca. 1925, Holmes County, OH, 89 × 76 in., from the collection of Faith and Stephen Brown Fig. 2.13 Joseph Albers, Homage to the Square: “Enclosed Blue,” from the series Great Ideas of Western Man, 1957, oil on fiberboard, 23 7⁄ 8 × 24 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.2 Fig. 2.14 Joseph Albers, Homage to the Square—Equivocal, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Woodward Foundation, 1976.108.1

to present their offspring with a gift from home that conformed to community preferences, whereas Albers was engaged in an intentional study of color and form.32 These divergent goals should not be read as hierarchical; we as viewers can enjoy quilts and paintings equally, taking in the complex ways colors and shapes can appear depending on their contexts.

Collectors including the Browns sought out the power­ful visual analyses possible when viewing a whole series of quilts in the same pattern, rather than just one. Their keen collecting choices that resulted in a depth of examples in patterns, including Ocean Waves, Center Diamond, Roman Stripes (pp. 120–125), Tumbling Blocks (pp. 76–79), and Nine Patch (pp. 66–75), allow us to contemplate the

individual decisions inherent in making a quilt and to see how these variations each stem from a greater tradition. We benefit from the Browns’ deliberate collecting strategy.

Yet the filtering process of quilts passing from Amish hands through pickers, dealers, collectors, and curators has also narrowed the art world’s definition of Amish quilts. Remember Sadie Esh’s blue-­and-­ white Irish Chain quilt, pieced by her grandmother Mary, quilted at a frolic by her teenage peers, and intended for everyday use? Few quilts like it have made it to the museums that now steward the prized masterpiece Amish quilts that resemble abstract art. Everyday quilts (fig. 2.15) — worn with use from swaddling children, packing furniture, serving as

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picnic blankets, covering delicate crops during spring weather, and repeated laundering — do not necessarily need to be preserved for posterity in museum collections, but they too should be understood as part of the great processes of convention and innovation within Amish quiltmaking.

Collectors like the Browns chose the quilts that sang to them and deserve credit for developing a specific collecting scope with great depth in some of the classic patterns made within Amish settlements.33 As we acknowledge the influence of collectors’ eyes, however, let’s also recognize that their choices have influenced how we interpret the vast and variable body of Amish quiltmaking. Let’s pay homage not only to the bold Center Diamonds and dazzling Ocean Waves, but also to the humble everyday quilts worn to shreds.G

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CAT. 37

Unidentified maker, One Patch, Buchanan County, IA, ca. 1940, cotton and wool, 31 1 ∕ 2 × 25 in., initialed “LAY,” Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Faith and Stephen Brown, 2022.4.19

114

CAT. 38

(above; detail, following pages) Unidentified maker, One Patch, Broken Dishes variation, Holmes County, OH, ca. 1930, cotton, 38 × 32 1 ∕ 2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Faith and Stephen Brown, 2022.4.21

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Tumbling Blocks

If there were any doubt about Amish quiltmakers’ ability to combine precise spatial skills with extra­ ordinary design instincts, these variations of the Tumbling Blocks pattern should put such questions to rest. The pattern — a seemingly simple combina­ tion of three 60-degree angles that forms the illusion of a three-dimensional cube — requires a specific type of technically challenging piecing known by contemporary quilters as a Y-seam, due to the shape of the intersection of the three diamonds.14 Achiev­ ing the precise points of the cube is challenging enough by itself, yet combining hundreds of tumbling

blocks to effectively produce the overall optical illu­ sions in these quilts requires equal parts geometry, aesthetics, and skill.

The dramatic pyramid design in the Stairway to Heaven variation (CAT. 19) — a name evocative of the upward trajectory created by the orientation of the cubes — shows how shade and hue can be manip­ ulated to create an allover design that moves the eye.

Tumbling Blocks can be a great canvas for using up scraps of fabric, yet this maker substituted no fabrics, consistently creating three-dimensional v’s in color­ ways that move across the quilt’s surface. The red, blue, and black variation (CAT. 20) is similarly pre­ cise in its use of color, here using just three shades.

The quilt’s seamstress expertly pieced the 60-degree angles, demonstrated by the quilt’s flat surface.

Nothing was left to chance. At first glance, our third variation (CAT. 21) looks like a different pattern com­ pletely because this quilt, in contrast to the others, is in fact a scrap creation. Most of the cubes feature one black diamond, but the inconsistency of fabric and hue creates a dazzling, bouncing effect, with six-pointed stars emerging from the field of cubes when viewed at a certain angle.G

CAT. 19

Unidentified maker, Tumbling Blocks, Stairway to Heaven variation, Holmes County, OH, ca. 1935, cotton, 68 × 79 in., Loan courtesy of Faith and Stephen Brown

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CAT. 34

Unidentified maker, Railroad Crossing, Holmes County, OH, ca. 1930, cotton, 41 × 36 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Faith and Stephen Brown, 2022.4.34

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CAT. 35

(above; detail, following pages) Unidentified maker, Railroad Crossing, Holmes County, OH, dated 1888, cotton, 91 × 71 1 ∕ 2 in., from the family of Malinda D. Miller, Loan courtesy of Faith and Stephen Brown

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