Seeing BLUE -"BOTCH HANDLE with RUNNING DIAMONDS" Quilt Stone BLUE & White, Double: 70"x80", LaGrange Co., IND. Start Price USD 2,000.00 Current Price USD 2,000.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Wednesday, July 16, 2008 End Time Saturday, July 26, 2008 Location Woodside, New York See more about 'Seeing BLUE -"BOTCH HANDLE with RUNNING DIAMONDS" Quilt' Description SEEING BLUE in October of 2004 the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City presented their show "BLUE"  From Steve Kane Quilts and Folk Art - A COLLECTOR'S QUILT Stone BLUE and White "BOTCH HANDLE" with Running Diamonds in a Frame Also called: "SHOOTING STARS" and "DEVIL'S CLAW" Made in the 1920's.  From LaGrange County, INDIANA.  Double size: approx. 70 inches by 80 inches. Probably made in the Amish / Mennonite (the PLAIN People) Community in LaGrange Co.  All Cottons.  Excellent condition.  Expertly quilted. "BOTCH HANDLE" is a name the Amish women of Holmes County, OHIO give this pattern according to Robert Bishop and Elizabeth Safanda in their 1976 A GALLERY OF AMISH QUILTS ( SEE Page 81, Plate 128).  The origin of that Amish Bishop's quilt name is unknown, but the pattern certainly looks like a functional Handle of some kind.  Another accepted name for this pattern is "SHOOTING STARS" from a common summer Midwestern sky phenemenon.  The diagonal tragectories of crossed Stars is identifiable in the stylized pattern. However, the name which evokes its Midwestern soul is "DEVIL'S CLAW."  Besides any devilish anatomical reference, "Devil's Claw" was a less frequently found wild grass of the American Plains that Indian women used in the creation of their intricately woven baskets.  The rarely found White Decoration on these baskets comes from the "Devil's Claw" plant and for me provides a deeper insight into the creation of this quilt. When the Plain (Amish / Mennonite) people of Pennsylvania migrated west to Ohio and Indiana they brought with them their Quilting Tradition.  Although this is a rare pattern, the RUNNING DIAMONDS which compose a Frame for the central pattern field is an element from Pennsylvania quilt vocabulary.  The Midwestern taste for an all-over pattern with a generally flat or two-dimensional quality is present in this BOTCH HANDLE, but it is played with through the spacial enhancements of the background Whites of the Handles and Diamonds. The LaGrange Community was prosperous and well established by the time this quilt was made in the 1920's, and the cloth would have been purchased specially for such a magnificent effort as this.  The expert quilting can be seen in the detail photo, the piecing is professional and the final 1/2 inch White BINDING and BACKING are "just so right." In her article in the AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM BULLETIN of Fall 2004, Stacy Hollander calls "Blue" a kind of "Black" that did not come into its own as a color until the 1700's when Indigo dye made its way to Europe and America (South Carolina in the 1740's).  Ms. Hollander writes that Blue expresses "the profundity of faith, life, grief and joy."  Blue "creates an infinite, dimensionless space;" Ms. Hollander points to "the devotional implication of color" which the history of Ultramarine Blue in religious art indicates. Whether associated with the Moon, Music or Art, the color BLUE has been assigned the highest of implications of rank and desireability, whether in discussing heritage (Blue Blood) or achievement (Blue Book). This Indiana "BOTCH HANDLE" is a fine quilt with a fine pedigree and a long future. ANTIQUE AMERICAN QUILTS reflect the appeal of the idiosyncratic art and tradition produced by anonymous American women - unsung artisans who created bold, pleasant, expressive designs, who used multiple image before Op Art, bold shapes before Hard Edge and mixed forms before Abstraction.  As seamstress and pioneer, homemaker and practioner of the domestic arts, the American woman made thousands of quilts with a magical artistic handiwork which covered beds in households across the American continent.  Made with skill, patience and love these genuine American patchwork quilts are as unique to the textile arts of the world as the paisley of Kashmir.  Although "piecing" was common in the near east and even China, and "quilting" was practiced variously around the Mediterranean, it is the combination of these two techniques that identifies the American Quilt Tradition.  The combination of three layers of of cloth (a pieced top, an inner filling and a backing) was sewn throughwith thread in a utilitarian or decorative stitch.  Some Makers combined colorful fabrics for their artistic expression and others practiced the draftsmanship of elaborate quilting. VISIT MY eBAY STORE TO VIEW MORE ANTIQUE AMERICAN QUILTS AND OTHER FOLK ART ITEMS.   Place a Bid!