Modern Print Monday: Ray Eames

Cross Patch for Schiffer Prints about 1945
Ray Eames
U.S.

Ray Kaiser Eames

1913-1988

Ray and her husband Charles Eames (pronounced like Ames) were influential designers in the 1940s and '50s who still define mid-century modern to our eyes.

A stamp from 2008

See more of Cross Patch at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/210003321?

Or just do a websearch for Cross Patch Eames to see what people are doing with it today.
More about Ray Eames:
http://www.miniaturechairman.com/8/post/2013/03/charles-and-ray-eames-fabrics.html

All things Eames:
http://eamesdesigns.com/

Abstraction in Today's Modern Quilts

The Poppies

from a Crafty Course

Modernism is about pushing abstraction. We know it's a poppy because whoever made it says it's a poppy.

Tulip Tree

 Denyse Schmidt

Here are two traditional abstractions (another oxymoron)---representations of nature.

See more at Denyse Schmidt's webpage:
http://www.dsquilts.com/quilts.asp

Twelve Trees

From Oakshott Fabrics

They sell a kit:

http://www.oakshottfabrics.com

I had a hard time finding abstracted imagery that the makers would classify as modern quilts---which makes me think that representations are just as foreign to today's modern movement as they were to the abstract painters of the post World War II years.

Painting by Mark Rothko

No. 3/No. 13 (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange), 

1949

Collection of the Museum of Modern Art

See the Museum's Rothko collection by clicking here:

http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=5047

Nevertheless: I found a few interesting abstractions in modern quilts.
Click on these links:

Jacquie Gering's Tulip at Tallgrass Prairie Studios
http://tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com/2013/04/wishing-for-spring.html

Sheila Frampton-Cooper's quilts:

http://zoombaby.com/my_work/quilts/17193764

And several at the West Michigan Quilters guild show:

http://westmichquilter.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-little-modern-at-wmqg.html 

Modern Print Monday: Dagobert Peche

Dagobert Peche

Vienna

Wundervogel or Butterfly is a wallpaper design from 1913 by Dagobert Peche of the Weiner Werkstatte, the Vienna Workshop. 

Dagobert Peche

 (1887-1923)

New York's Neue Galerie has reproduced the print for a variety of objects, including yardage.

http://shop.neuegalerie.org/products/peche-butterfly-textile

And see a post about Dagobert Peche at the blog Vienna Textiles here:

http://viennatextiles.blogspot.com/2010/04/dagobert-peche.html

Abstraction in 20th Century Quilt Patterns

Roseville pottery's Mostique pattern

features a variation of the abstracted rose

known as the Glasgow Rose or the Mackinstosh Rose.

Book designer Elbert Hubbard used an abstracted floral

on the cover of his inspirational pamphlet.

As modern designers pushed floral design to simpler abstractions, commercial quilt pattern designers (a rather new profession) experimented with floral abstractions, beginning in the teens and going through the 1940s.

BlockBase #774

Rosebud from Needlecraft magazine in July, 1929

Piecing lent itself to abstraction. In the eternal design circle artists who looked to antique quilts for abstraction ideas then created more abstracted designs for women looking for modern quilts.

Here are a few from newspapers and pattern catalogs of the era, exported from my PC program BlockBase. I found most of them in categories Realistic>Flowers and Realistic >Baskets. In BlockBase you can find the pattern and print it out any size by using the number in the Search by Number box in the task bar at the top.

BlockBase #752.5

Flower Pot Quilt

from Aunt Martha Studios

Placing a bowl or basket under a very abstract floral establishes its identity.

BlockBase #751.5 

Primrose Patch from Workbasket magazine

in 1945

BlockBase ##723 

Basket of Flowers, possibly from Comfort magazine

BlockBase #758

Garden of Friendship from the 

Alice Brooks/Laura Wheeler syndicated column in the 1930s

The designers who worked under the Brooks/Wheeler pen names brought in new shapes in the 1930s.

BlockBase #752

Leafy Basket

Another from the Alice Brooks/Laura Wheeler syndicated column in the 1930s.

The problem with these designs is that they were not really what the seamstresses of the era wanted. One comes across very few quilts ever made in these pieced modern patterns.

BlockBase # 783

Pansy from Ruby Short McKim

The seamstresses of the 1910-1950 era just didn't seem to be ready for the designs.

But by 1981 people like Mary Jenkins in Wales were ready. See her version of McKim's Pansy here at Little Welsh Quilts:

http://littlewelshquiltsandothertraditions.blogspot.com/2010/11/printed-or-plain_16.html

Modern Print Monday: Sonia Delaunay

Sonia Delaunay

Paris

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) was extremely innovative in the teens and twenties,

applying the new principles of geometric minimalism to repeat pattern.

She is also known as Sonia Delaunay-Terk

Read more about this artist here:
http://www.obit-mag.com/articles/the-colorful-life-of-sonia-delaunay

Modern Panel: Prairie School Window

Prairie School Window

By Georgann Eglinski

20-5/8" X 28-7/8"

Every month for the next year I'll post a free pattern for needlework inspired by the modern movement here. See the April, 2013 pattern at the bottom of the page.

Tree of Life

Cut-out Chintz quilt

Attributed to Florence Outerbridge, 1812

From the Flack Collection

Modernism pushed abstraction beyond traditional boundaries.

Tree of Life window

by Frank Lloyd Wright

1904

For the Darwin Martin House

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright's stained glass windows are based on plant life. He reduced basic shapes  to strict geometries and left out much of the detail.

Frank Lloyd Wright

for the Tomek House 1907.

Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago

See more here:

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/104393

Although the window designs are extremely abstract one can see plants in the linear layout and the complexity at the top of the plant where the flowers would be.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Window attributed to the Frick House

Frank Lloyd Wright

Window for the Boynton House 1908

Wright is classified as a member of the Prairie School of Architecture, centered in Chicago.

Inspired by Wright's abstractions (Here's the Darwin Martin window upside down) I designed Prairie School Window for the chapter on Modernism in my book Making History: Quilts & Fabrics 1890-1970.

Prairie School Window by Libby Fife

Libby made two versions

Prairie School Window by Libby Fife

Here she's pieced an abstract rose into the 

squares (G)

Here's a link to Libby's Blog: Quilted Craftsman

http://quiltedcraftsman.blogspot.com/

Below is the pattern taken from my book Making History:

Finished Size:

20-5/8" X 28-7/8"

Fabric Requirements

Background: 1/2 yard

Leaves, Stems & Border

     Dark: 1/2 yard

     Light: 1/2 yard

Rose: Fat quarter

Backing: 3/4 yard

Batting: 27" x 35"

Binding: 1/4 yard

Cutting

Border

A Cut 4 squares 1-7/8"  for corners

B - Cut 2 rectangles 1-7/8" x 18-3/8" for top and bottom border

C - Cut 2 rectangles 1-7/8" x 26-5/8" for side borders

Stems & Leaves

B - Cut 3 rectangles 1-7/8" x 18-3/8" for stems

E - Cut 6 dark and 7 light rectangles 1-7/8" x 3-1/4" for leaves

Roses

G - Cut 3 square 4-5/8"

Background

B - Cut 1 rectangle 1-7/8" x 18-3/8" 

D - Cut 4 rectangles 1-7/8" x 4-5/8"

F - Cut 2 rectangles 3-1/4" x 18-3/8"

H - Cut 4 rectangles 4-5/8" x 18-3/8"

Quilting:

Georgann quilted an abstract rose---a Glasgow Rose---into the squares at the top. Click on this picture, copy it to a word file or jpg and print it out. The square should be 4-1/4".

She emphasized the vertical nature of the panel by echoing the piecing lines in the rest of her quilting.

Modern Print Monday: Mackintosh Rose & Teardrop

Rose & Tear Drop

in a scarf available today.

The original repeating print was

by Charles Rennie Mackintosh,

designed between 1915 and 1923.

Scotland

Mackintosh's design for the Rose and Teardrop design was never produced during the teens when he painted several versions, but one could fill the hall closet today with neckties, scarves, placemats and card cases for sale now that it is out of copyright.

See his original painting here at the Hunterian Art Gallery website:

http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch_Mackintosh/DetailedResults.fwx?SearchTerm=41063&reqMethod=Link

Roses without teardrops

Abstracted roses are often called Mackintosh Roses or Glasgow Roses.