Isn't it funny how you can go a long time--even years--without thinking of a particular thing or quilt pattern and then suddenly the universe throws a bunch of them at you. This is what has been happening to me with tile quilts.
Every time I think of abstract tile work, I can't help remember the movie How to Make An American Quilt and Gladys' ceramic room. In a fit of emotion, she broke a lot of ceramics and then adhered them to the wall. At the end of the movie, she forgives her sister and husband and breaks down the wall.
A while ago, some of the quilt historians discussed tile quilts on social media. It struck me as odd because at the time, I was following a blog where the quilter was making a tile quilt.
I'm not sure when they became popular but surely on and off for the last century. The style might have been a variation of crazy quilts.
The idea of the tile quilt is straightforward. Applique scraps of fabric onto a background and leave enough space to give the appearance of grouting around the pieces.
Here's one that was once listed on ebay from the 1940s:
Finley wrote a book with Carol Gilham Jones that featured these kinds of quilts. Tile Quilt Revival might be out of print but I found that etsy had a copy of her book for sale and the ad features many photos you can look at here.
Over the weekend, I was just looking through online sites to see old quilts and found this one for sale at etsy. It's a tile doll quilt:
Before Christmas, I admired the "Sea Glass Quilts" made by Allie at Exhausted Octopus. She also gives a class on them. The quilts use the same technique as tile quilts. You can look at them here.
Lastly, there's a pdf quilt pattern here for Raw Edged Tile quilts.
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Totally unrelated: Free pattern alert! One of the groups I followed posted this website with free patterns Here.
Have a safe and happy day!
