Crib Quilt c. 1940

This anonymous crib quilt, made of cotton, is a beautiful object to behold. I think of the hands that labored over this piece—cutting, arranging, stitching—a process not unlike painting, only with fabric and thread instead of paint. Imagine the maker, carefully selecting these blues and peaches, how they might have considered the weight and texture of the cotton, its capacity to absorb the light. The quilt is punctuated by stars—six of them, each radiating outward from a central point. I imagine the quilt maker thinking, I'm going to make a star, make it sharp, make it repeat. It’s a bit like Agnes Martin's grids or Gee's Bend quilts, simple forms repeated with slight variations. These forms accumulate to create something greater than the sum of their parts.