Men Who Quilt #2

 Years ago I made a hexie wall quilt that was pretty small in scale.  It was a little Christmas "I spy" themed piece when the grandkids were young.  I swore I would never do it again.  Of course--never say never--I'm now playing around with Hexagon quilt as you go templates;  not sure how I feel about them yet.

Today I want to talk about the one male quiltmaker that I've heard about quite often through my quilt history journey.  

Albert Small lived in Illinois and after teasing his wife about quilting,  decided to take it up as a hobby.  In the 1940s he began to get recognition for his amazing quiltmaking.    Articles often cite that he had made a quilt with the most amount of pieces.  His technique of choice was hexagons.  But not like this 20th century piece...

What he did with them was amazing.

You almost have to see them to appreciate them.  You can read his story here and check out his quilts here.  

Often newspaper articles notate quilts and how many pieces there are in a particular textile.  Albert Small made Ripley's Believe It or Not article and...as far as I know...still holds the record for most pieces in a quilt.  Honestly, I don't really care about that as much as I do the overall visual image of the quilt.

I like this story because it talks about Small and the size of the hexagons he chose to work with but I also like that it talks about the sentimental attachment fabric can hold with quiltmakers like this piece:

Made of scraps and leftovers from dresses, Hilda loved to look at this quilt and remember growing up on the farm in Northampton County.

Have a safe and happy day!