the 18 of us who were able to make it to Louisville Saturday enjoyed a great day of wandering at our leisure among the chintz quilts on display, reading the descriptions, attempting to see at an angle behind the quilts (the scheduled docent did not appear, and despite our offer of gloves, the attendants refused to even twitch an edge for us <g>!)

The quilts were beautifully displayed, hanging full out with lots of space around each. There were also two glass cases that allowed us to get very close to the examples without exhaling on them (or worse). One case held samples of vintage chintz fabric, and the other an incredible paper pieced hexagon top with units about the size of a quarter - and thousands of them! (I don't think this was the quilt on C&C page 56, but the work was similar). The piece was arrange in the case so both the finished side and the basting, papers, and whipstitched joining could be seen. A similar composition can also be seen on page 72-3. If you have a copy of Calico & Chintz you can follow along; we saw a great many of the quilts illustrated in the book.

Another hexagon set, this one described as a child's quilt, featured coordinated 'flowers' set in fields of white hexagons, with a red 'Indiennes' in hanging diamonds defining each flower. The quilt had a wide chintz border of roses on drab brown, ca. 1830 (see C&C, p. 84-5).

The first piece that confronted us was a wonderful appliquéd top with chintz cutouts on a white linen ground (backed, no quilting). The center focus was a basket created of segmented chintz feather prints, and the arborescent filling included leaves cut from other chintzes and neatly appliquéd. Startling among the fabrics was a dark indigo with large white dots, about the size of an aspirin. The dots were cunningly used as design elements in flowers around the outside of the center design. A swag with trefoil lobes at the intersections bordered the piece. This one is not in the book.

The wholecloth on page 62 is incredibly more vivid than it looks on the page, in part because it is huge and dominated the wall; it is only casually quilted, and we were not treated to the French toile backing fabric, which can be seen on page 63. We saw a sedate, planned Unequal Nine Patch (BB #2020) on point, in brown tones with a single 2-step green arborescent between, showing blue frond palm trees with coconuts. There were several pillar prints, including one in the fabrics case, using the pillars to advantage by setting the top strippie style. The alternate stripes were rather simple block formats on point (see p. 80-81) There was also a Flying Geese strippie from mid-century, set with brown chintz (p. 128-9)

A lovely southern (SC) quilt with a delicate broderie perse clutch of flowers in the center and floral motifs surrounding was set in a series of chintz frames, each successively wider and all floral, and was intensely quilted, supposedly by slaves on the plantation (p.96-70. Another block format, a Nine patch from New England, presented in brown tones and showed tantalizing scraps of a monochrome chintz with an exotic plumed bird on a nest of bizarre fruit; the eye kept jumping, trying to reconnect the images (p.98-9).

Other quilts included a pieced 'Sunflower variation in bold yellow and blue ombre cotton, with an interesting approach to the problem of not enough striped fabric to completely frame the piece (see the corners on p.111). Eight year old Carolyn Miller pieced a small quilt of more than a thousand pieces, using chintzes and other cottons; friends inked, stenciled, or embroidered their names on precise 'Reel and Oak Leaf' blocks in a variety of 2-step greens and turkey red 'Indiennes,' with an incredible moire-print blue border that shimmered just because of the print design (p.119). another border that was equally dramatic blue ombre print in segments, almost like Attic Windows.

For sheer drama, the most vibrant piece in the exhibit was a quilt made of HUGE Nine Patch blocks on point (p.124-5); we estimated that they were between 12-15" square. The blocks were random, incorporating a vivid assortment of red, gold, yellow, brown, pink, and blue calicoes, and the setting fabric was a dramatic vermicular print in brown, shadowed in white, on a brown and blue ombre striped ground overlaid with delicate black fronds like feathers. The pieced frame and floral striped border were subdued enough to keep this piece from jumping right off the wall!

The exhibit continues at the Speed Museum (www.speedmuseum.org) until March 14, and will also have the following schedule:

April 7-June 7, 2004 - Portland Museum of Art (Portland, Maine) Sep. 19-Nov. 21, 2004 - Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, Ohio) It's not to be missed!

Xenia