Quilt c. 1936

Curator: Let’s discuss this "Quilt," made around 1936 by Isabelle De Strange using mixed media. My initial reaction is how the floral motifs arranged give off such a serene and organized mood. Editor: Organized, sure, if your idea of order includes the faint threat of antimacassars. To me, it evokes a memory of grandma's spare room - simultaneously comforting and ever so slightly… suffocating? There is something a bit ominous here for sure! Curator: Perhaps! Considering its potential use as a functional textile, or study for one, the neat design points more towards an aspiration of order. Quilts during the 1930s often became vehicles for community expression, providing warmth in challenging economic times. I notice also the date stitched in... 1841. What to make of that, I wonder. Editor: Exactly! Maybe this isn't just an isolated design; maybe it's a message from another time! Look at the colors! Those soft indigos and plums bleed into each other in a way that makes me feel like time itself is rippling across this piece. Curator: Yes, the limited palette creates an atmosphere but also makes it readable. It seems to echo designs found within samplers created by young women in the early 19th Century - they had educational and aspirational function as well as, arguably, early modes of graphic communications for women. We should consider what the visual structure is communicating! The statement "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" across the bottom seems... assertive. Editor: See, this is why I adore textiles – they speak without ever raising their voice. Someone poured emotion into creating that design, wrestling with hopes and worries, leaving them right there in those repeated stitches. I am certain we're just skimming the surface of what this quilt wants to tell us. Curator: It makes you wonder about its journey since conception – how was it made, by whom, for whom, and under what conditions? This opens up avenues of socio-political questioning of what, at first glance, seems innocuous or purely decorative. Editor: So true, I agree. What begins as cozy and familiar then becomes intricate and rather mysterious – prompting you to dream your own story into those patterns. Curator: Right! And what strikes me is its ability to straddle the personal and the political.