Quilt by Anna Williams
Occasionally an artist comes across a direction-changing inspiration for her work. Anna Williams has given that gift to many contemporary quilters. She's from Louisiana, born in 1927. Her quilts are hand-pieced of small shards, worked into powerful compositions.
The American Quilters Society showed her work in 1995 and published a catalog of the exhibit, Anna Williams: Her Quilts and their Influences by Katherine Watts with Elizabeth Walker. That catalog is now out of print, but several people are encouraging the American Quilters Society to reprint it.
Read more about Anna Williams by checking this site:
http://www.straw.com/equilters/annawilliams/index.html
Louisiana State University also gave her a show:
http://www.textilemuseum.huec.lsu.edu/joyfulimprovisationsvspg1.html
Among the artists who've been influenced: (Some are pictured---some require clicking)
Karen Griska
http://www.realwomenquilt.com/archives/KarenGriskaFeaturedQuilter.php
Dorothy LeBoeuf
Nancy Crow
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08163/888833-42.stm
Deb Rowden
See her blog post about Anna
http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2010/04/love-anna-williams.html
http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2010/05/still-loving-anna-williams.html
Nifty Quilts
See her blog
Cathy Tomm
http://www.exploringcreativity.com/featured_artist20_archive.html
Barbara Brackman
I'm still quilting on it
Another by Deb Rowden
Kathy at Material Obsession sent a picture and a description:
This quilt, called Madness, was inspired by one that Anna Williams did and I admired. The key to Anna's were diagonal lines crossing over the vertical and horizontal pieces... This quilt came together rather quickly from my scraps over the last six years and is one of my favorites.
And a small one Deb Rowden, Terry Thompson and I did together
See this photo set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatkatiedidnext/sets/72157600011083006/
Eileen Lovett
http://www.realwomenquilt.com/archives/EileenLovett.html
Anybody else?
Send pictures or links.
I would love to see that book reprinted...thanks for all the links!
ReplyDeleteLove all of the above! Very inspiring collection of quilts. I hope the book gets reprinted too!
ReplyDeleteYes, let's get that book reprinted!! Thanks for all the links. I could look at Anna's quilts endlessly.
ReplyDeleteI have the now out-of-print book and it's small but wonderful.
ReplyDeleteYears ago my sister Eileen and I challenged each other to make a quilt that looked just like one that Anna Williams might make. Then we took photos and mailed them to Anna. She wrote back saying that she was glad to hear that we liked her quilts and wishing us the best. She didn't offer an opinion as to wheather our quilts looked like hers though. Haha.
Wonderful inspiration for working with scraps.
ReplyDeleteI love to make quilts out of scraps.
Debbie
She might hand piece some of the time, but I am pretty sure that she machine pieces many of her quilts. There was a feature on Anna in one of Kaffe Fassett's books, and she was photographed at work, piecing on her sewing machine. She is a treasure.
ReplyDeletegreat post - love seeing all the quilts inspired by such a wonderful quilter. thanks for including me. I'm hoping for a reprint of the '95 catalog, but boy even better would be a bigger book with lots of photos of Anna's work and thoughtful analysis by a noted quilt historian AND lots of pics of quilts made by other quilters inspired by Anna. hint hint hint.
ReplyDeleteLove all of the above! Very inspiring collection of quilts. I hope the book gets reprinted too!
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