more swedish quilts

it's a lazy saturday afternoon and i thought i'd share a bit more from the fantastic swedish quilt book, gamla svenska lapptäcken  i bought earlier in the week. i've had a chance to read a bit more of it (tho' by no means all). it was published in 1993 as part of an exhibition of quilts that made the rounds in sweden and also in paris. it was written by åsa wettre, and she clearly knew her quilts. she discusses quilting traditions in sweden and says that many quilt designs were brought back home to sweden by people who temporarily immigrated to america in the 1800s. which explains why there are so many log cabin designs, which i always think of as somehow very american. in swedish, the log cabin quilt design is called stockhustäcke, which i somehow find very charming. there are a number of beautiful log cabin examples in the book:

i really love the play with light and dark values in these.

and even this one is a variation on a log cabin:

there are stories of quilters and quilts throughout the book. my favorite is an interview with an old man who had gone sailing with the merchant navy from the age of 14 and didn't really go back home for 18 years. he talked about how they made quilts by hand on deck in their spare time. they were taught by an older boatsman and they did it both to pass the time and to be sure they had a warm blanket in their bunks onboard. there were no pictures to go with that story, but i love the story just the same. it gives another perspective on sailors that i'll admit i wouldn't have thought of myself.

i'll share one last quilt from the book (for today), because it reminds me so much of the beautiful quilts of gee's bend:

and now, i think i'll go. all of this inspiration has me feeling decidedly like sewing something.