Coverlet c. 1937

Lon Cronk made this coverlet without a date, and with some thread, and I find myself thinking about the repetition, rhythm and blues involved. It’s like a painting, but made of thread, with each tiny stitch building up the image—imagine the patience, the steady hand, the hours spent lost in the process. I’m feeling for Lon here, picturing them carefully selecting each color, knotting each thread, building up these patterns bit by bit. There are blues so deep they’re almost black, offset against these fields of white, and together they construct these shifting squares, echoing and changing, fading in and out. There is an energy here, not unlike Agnes Martin. And for me, the piece transcends its function, becoming something deeply personal, a quiet meditation worked in thread. It reminds us that creativity isn’t confined to the canvas, but woven into the everyday.