Quilts of glass: Log Cabin, Broken Dishes, and maybe Ohio Star

I have been honored to cover my bed with quilts made by my husband’s grandmother Mamie Danner, and Wayne’s love of quilts piqued my own interest with this art form. In this photo, Mamie is 2nd from the right. She had a quilting room in the basement of her house, and Wayne remembers visiting her there.

Quilt patterns give me a thrill, and being to translate them into glass is very exciting. My ability to sew blocks is impeded by an antagonistic relationship with my sewing machine(which now belongs to my husband for the quilt he made). At first I collaged Christmas cards a few years ago in a log cabin pattern, using magazine papers, and was utterly absorbed in the interplay of color, the many tones and textures present in photographic images. Then, when I moved into my studio, and began to make mosaics, I remembered the log cabin cards, and wondered what I could do with mosaic.

I took a 12×12 inch square of 1/2 inch plywood, and began the process of making a red and black log cabin design. Glass has a range of textures, and I alternated shiny, matte, copper flecked, rough, translucent, and iridized. I am drawn to both visual and tactile texture. I know some mosaicists like their work perfectly flat and smooth and go to great lengths to make it so, but that would drive me crazy.

Another block I was intrigued to find is called “Broken Dishes”–an appropriate name for work done in mosaic! It’s a mixture of triangles, in a configuration of lights and darks that adds sparkle as the eye moves over the contrasts. At a holiday show this year, a woman came up to me and said “Ohio Star.” At first, I wasn’t sure what she meant, and then she said, you must try Ohio Star, and that is next on my list of patterns to try.