Quilt Horizon

Here's one of my favorite vintage quilts from the current SJMQT exhibit that I was lucky enough to see recently with friend Jaye. It was displayed horizontally so please pardon the strange photography angles. This quilt was jaw-dropping. All the silks and velvets and fancy fabrics, the jewel colors, the sharp edges of the shapes, the use of dark and light. So beautiful. The label said the servants of the estate made this quilt and I could easily imagine that each fabric might have come from the lady of the house's fancy dresses. Perhaps scraps from the ones that her servants made for her? Who knows, but the variety contained in this one quilt is astounding.

 It was interesting to see the way this was put together, in three columns of three different blocks. Almost as if they were three separate projects done at different times and then joined together.

Detail of the corded edges between each shape. Every single one was outlined in this fine small gold/cream silk cording. So elegant and it makes the whole quilt shimmer.

This quilt is also pictured in Kaffe Fasset's book, "Heritage Quilts."  (affiliate link to amazon)

Seeing the inspiration quilt displayed right next to the quilt Kaffe created made a whole lot more sense to me in person. I didn't really get the connections from reading and seeing the pictures in the book until I got this opportunity to see the quilts side-by-side.