I am surprised that the last time I showed "Pumpkins" on this blog was November 2008! It took me a long time to find it in the archives and I am showing it in full from that long ago post.
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I am an admirer of Ruth B. McDowell and the magical quilts she creates. There are quite a few of her works in the Collection. I feel this is one of her very best and it fits right into this season of autumn and Thanksgiving.
"Pumpkins" Ruth B. McDowell - Massachusetts 1998 57"W x 44.5"L
Commercial cotton fabrics, cotton batting, cotton thread.
Machine pieced. Hand appliqué. Machine quilted.
Using her unique techniques of curved seam machine piecing for the pumpkins and straight seam machine piecing for the leaves, Ruth has created an elegant image of this common vegetable. Her whimsical choices for the background fabric include round orange flowers with green leaves which reflect the color and shape of the pumpkins, shibori, hand dyes, batiks and plaids. For the leaves there are many different fabrics in a variety of greens including a vintage piece with buttons that could represent bug holes, or raindrops. She has make a rather realistic stem by piecing striped fabric together. The only appliqué used is for the bottom circle on the foreground pumpkin. The integrated border implies a frame, but blends into background to avoid crowding the central image.
Ruth B. McDowell and Del Thomas w/Pumpkins quilt in background. Photo by Karen Stiehl Osborn.
Last February (2007} a selection of Ruth B. McDowell quilts from the TCQC hung for several months at the Pacific Grove shop Back Porch Fabrics. It was a great opportunity for those attending Asilomar to see the quilts up close and to read what Ruth had to say about them in her various books. Pumpkins appears in "A Fabric Journey: An Inside Look at the Quilts of Ruth B. McDowell" on pages 18 - 21
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The are now more than 30 Ruth B. McDowell quilts in the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection. The latest was added last fall, "Day Lilies by the Pond". Ruth has retired from teaching and now lives in Minnesota, but she still makes an occasional quilt.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for sharing information about Ruth. She now lives in Minnesota? Wow, she does love the snowy cold weather! I do remember "Pumpkins" another favorite. Ruth's fabric choices were superb and continue to be. Again, Del, thank you so much for keeping me and so many others uptodate on Ruth's life. Take care and stay well.
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