Red & White Sample FINALLY

Artist:

Kim F. Hall

Finished by Catherine Wooten, Baltimore, MD and

Machine quilted by Kim Komet, Baltimore, MD

Dimensions:

77H x 62W

Materials:

cotton

Kim F. Hall: When my parents and I went to the 2011 Infinite Variety exhibit at the Park Avenue Armory, I was blown away. It was the largest exhibition of quilts ever held in the city and remains one of the most visually stunning exhibits I've ever seen. Although I knew that red dye was an important development in textile history and red and white quilts are a significant aesthetic in American quilting, I wasn't really into them. But the show of 650 quilts (which are only a portion of Joanna S. Rose's quilt collection) inspired a desire for my own red and white quilt.

For several years, I participated in the online "Block Lotto" quilt group. Block Lotto is a block of the Month (BOM) block exchange: the organizer presents a pattern and color scheme every month, interested quilters make the block and submit photos of finished blocks on the group blog. Participants are then put into a drawing, winners are chosen at the end of the month and quilters then mail their blocks to the winners. One year I won 42 blocks from quilters across the world that I shared with my mother.

In 2013, Sophie, the organizer, decided that each block would be a 6 x 9 inch rectangular block so that we could make our own sampler quilt over the year. A perfect opportunity for a red and white quilt! I made some in the required color scheme for the exchange and made some in red and white. By the end of the year I had my quilt blocks which then sat in a drawer for years. I pulled it out during the shutdown, but my hands were unsteady due to a flare up of then-undiagnosed illness and I didn't want it to be wonky, so I asked Ms. Catherine to finish the top. I had picked a really cool red and white sawtooth fabric for the border, but when I "auditioned it" for the finished quilt, it didn't work and we went with the strips.