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| "Holy Hexagons" unknown maker, c. 1900, Pennsylvania |
The doorbell rang some time after lunch yesterday, and I knew exactly what it was. The "Holy Hexagons" quilt! I waited for an eternity...well, maybe only 12 days...but it seemed like an eternity.
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| pre-1900s print fabrics in the mix - one of two lit candles! |
In nearly 30 years of collecting, I've never seen anything like it. Pictorials are rare enough as it is. One made of hexagons? Let's just say I had to see it to believe it.
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| one of four keys - the Four Keys to Heaven? |
There are clues, but hard to say if there is a way to decipher them without projecting or speculating. Motifs include a large central cross surrounded by four keys, two candles, two anchors, nine chalices, two buildings and many flowers.
Toward the top is a rainbow, peaked like a roof. At the bottom is what looks like a pair of bones...or is it HH? Holy Hexagons! It couldn't be...or could it?
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Stunning. Hopefully I can learn more about the quilt by putting it out there. That's one of my secrets, by the way. Share generously, and somehow it will come back as knowledge. The more people who see it, the better the chances of finding that hidden source of information.
It is a stunner for sure. I have made an EPP full size quilt so I can appreciate the work that went in to this. Also getting those hexis where they were suppose to be. They have a way of jumping their space and end up one over or under - whatever. Wish I could add to your knowledge but I will wait to read more about this as it comes to light. Thanks for the great start to today.
ReplyDeleteSuperb! Thanks for rescuing it.
ReplyDeleteWow! Stunning. Your method of research makes perfect sense to me.
ReplyDeleteYou never know what you'll learn by sharing. When I was writing my book, I was trying to identify a mass produced bedcover. For ten years, nobody - including 40 attendees in my study center at the American Quilt Study Group Seminar in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2012 - could identify it. A friend saw it on Facebook, helped me ID it, and I acknowledged her in the book. I did that several times throughout the book. It's like a perfect circle of giving, receiving and giving again. I also think the most prolific contributors work this way.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the "HHs" are communion wafers?
ReplyDeleteMission to Seamen quilt springs to mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat a quilt! Could those bones be the closest they could get to representing communion wafers and keep using only full hexagons? I suppose is could also be just as likely to have been a small design to fill the empty spots.
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