Crazy Quilt 1905

silk, textile

pattern heavy

natural stone pattern

naturalistic pattern

silk

loose pattern

textile

geometric pattern

abstract pattern

organic pattern

flower pattern

united-states

pattern repetition

layered pattern

"Crazy Quilt" (1905) by Florence Barton Loring is a striking example of the "crazy quilt" style, a popular form of textile art in the late 19th century. The quilt features a grid of 25 squares, each filled with a unique assortment of fabrics, trims, and embellishments. Loring's masterful use of color, texture, and pattern creates a visually captivating and intricate composition, showcasing the artist's skill in combining salvaged and repurposed materials to create a beautiful and unique work of art. The Minneapolis Institute of Art houses this impressive example of American textile art.

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minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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In the late 19th century a new type of quilt was introduced to an audience of eager quilters. Constructed from hundreds of small bits of cloth with no set design, the Crazy Quilt is aptly named. The random shapes and sizes of the fabric are much like pieces of a puzzle that the quilter painstakingly assembles and stitches together to form blocks. The Crazy Quilt was very fashionable during the Victorian era, when scraps of silks and velvets, many embroidered with floral or sentimental imagery, were stitched into quilts, each piece outlined with intricate embroidery stitches. Florence Barton Loring was a prominent citizen of Minneapolis and the wife of Charles M. Loring, the "Father of the Park System" in Minneapolis. This quilt, believed to have been completed by 1905, is an embroidered biography of its maker. Each square references some aspect of Mrs. Loring's life, from her love of music, trees, birds and animals to tributes to her friends and family (see chart).