Master Pieces
The art of the Texas quilt.
(Page 2 of 7)
Textile Treasures
“I was going to be a painter,” says Studstill, “but the first thing I did after I got my BFA—it was really odd—was make a quilt.” Perhaps it was in her genes. Studstill, who grew up in San Antonio, is the granddaughter of a quiltmaker whom she visited often as a child. At her grandmother’s side, she learned quilting techniques by the age of 7. Now in her mid-40s, Studstill ranks among the top art-quilters in America. Museums that have collected her work include the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, the American Craft Museum in New York City, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. Studstill colors almost all of her fabric by hand with acrylic paint. Combined with her intricate patterning, the results, as shown by #44 Quilt, can resemble pointillist paintings. This one, she says, “was inspired by seeing the wind whip through waving grasses probably seen on the side of the road in Texas or New Mexico.”
Studstill says she gives her quilts numbers rather than names so that people will feel free to see different things in them. She is now working on #135. Of all of her works, she has kept only two. That’s because she enjoys the process even more than the finished product. “I’m perfectly happy to have them floating around out there in the world,” she says.
Traditional Quilt: Six Times Six Comes Up Roses (front), Kathleen McCrady
While Studstill was stitching her way into the art-quilt spotlight, Kathleen McCrady of Austin was developing a reputation around the state as a maker of exquisite traditional quilts. One of her most noted works is the hand-pieced, hand-quilted Six Times Six Comes Up Roses. She recreated the central pattern of six-pointed stars from a photograph of an unusual 19th-century quilt owned by the Long Island Historical Society. She based the rest of the design on patterns from quilts of the same period. Six Times Six took First Place in a master’s division at the 1990 IQA show and a Second Place award in 1992 at the American Quilter’s Society annual show. McCrady says that only after she started Six Times Six did she realize why the star-and-grid pattern is so rare: “It’s a very intricate thing to piece. Nine or 10 points come together in some places. Anyone who quilts knows it’s a tedious thing to get that many pieces to come together right.” Four months of labor resulted in a finished quilt that has been published in at least three national quilting magazines, including on the cover of the industry’s bible, Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine.
Traditional Quilt: Six Times Six Comes Up Roses (back), Kathleen McCrady
McCrady was born in Marysville, and has lived in Texas for most of her 73 years. She learned to quilt as a teenager from her mother and mother-in-law who were taught by their mothers. During the sesquicentennial, the McCrady women’s work appeared in an exclusive exhibit at Austin’s Dougherty Arts Center. McCrady was invited to present 36 pieces, some dating back to the 1930s, all made by McCrady and her foremothers. McCrady says quiltmaking gives her a sense of connection “with every woman who has ever had a needle in her hand to create something beautiful.”
Traditional Quilt: Painted Pineapple, Mary Ann Herndon
Unlike McCrady, Mary Ann Herndon was in her 40s before she started quilting. Still, some of her innovative pieces have won blue ribbons in respected international competitions. In January, Herndon’s neon-bright Painted Pineapple took first in a a contest hosted by the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society, beating out 60 entries from 15 states, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Herndon’s design recreates traditional pineapple patterns by setting them along diagonal lines and against a backdrop of black, purples, fiery reds, oranges, and bright yellow. Her use of bold color was one of the reasons MAQS awarded her First Prize.
Traditional Quilt: Amish Paint, Mary Ann Herndon
Herndon’s Amish Paint has also been praised for its use of color. The rich palette of saturated reds, browns, and oranges enhances the warm look of this sampler quilt made of traditional schoolhouse blocks. Amish Paint won First Place in its category at the 1986 IQA show and also appeared on the cover of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine.
Herndon says she became a quilting convert 20 years ago. A resident of Memorial, Texas, near Houston, she went to a meeting of the Greater Houston Quilt Guild where she heard nationally-known quilter Yvonne Porcella give a speech. After that, her love of fabric and color took over, and she’s been quilting ever since. “To me, quiltmaking is an art form, not just a craft,” says Herndon. “The really fine art quilts belong with fine paintings—and certainly quilts take much longer!”
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