PICTURED UPPERMOST...:
Outdoor quilt market - Rajesh Dangi, Bangalore, "Shivaji Nagar Market", May 2007 "...a quilt was often the family's diary. Many patterns that are still used today, such as the wagon wheel, star over Texas, log cabin, and cactus flower, originated from wagon train living."
Eleanor Coerr The Josefina Story Quilt
The Design Offerings website showcases the current works of rising artist and designer Nancy Waldron-Griffin. Special requests, select artist consignments and custom orders are welcomed.
"Patchwork? Ah, no! It was memory, imagination, history, bioagraphy, joy, sorrow, philosophy, religion, romance, realism, life, love and death; and over all, like a halo, the love of the artist for his work and the soul's longing for earthly immortality."
A quilt is much more than a type of bedding; although today’s marketplace overfloweth with “McQuilts”, the word quilt, for the most part, still conjures images of individual craft and expression as well as small group effort and creativity. These efforts result in a handmade bed covering skillfully composed of a quilt top, a layer of batting and a layer of fabric for backing. These layers are generally combined by stitching...or quilting. Another technique for combining quilt layers is called “tying”. Tying refers to using thread, yarn or ribbon to pass through the layers at patterned intervals. The "ties" hold the layers together and gives a quilt the strength necessary to withstand the use and washings of generations. Tied quilts, depending on the area of the country you’re in, are called "lap", "comfort" or "comforters", among other names. While the utilitarian construction of quilts is generally a given, the pioneering design spirit of authentic quilters defies prediction or imprisonment by utility, kits or tradition. Thus, in viewing the body of work by American quilt makers we discover quickly that quilts are made using God’s palette of color, designs and images and while most still think of a bed covering when we hear the word quilt, the fact is that many quilts are not used as bed coverings at all, but rather are made as family chronicles, heirlooms or keepsakes often commemorating family events; or to be hung on a wall or otherwise displayed.
Evidence of quilt making for the sake of pure expression and quilt making for practical reasons (e.g., staying warm on a cold night in a drafty old Georgia house) are to be found throughout the world and history dating to ancient Egypt. However, nowhere in the world or in history has quilting become such a mirror of the culture as it has in America. Quilting in America spans the generations of the earliest days of our foremothers and fathers until today. In America, the quilt is a mirror reflecting the events of our lives and families over time. Quickly putting aside the commercialized images of bland seasonal bedding, quilt kits and the like, I believe that these are high times for the art and craft of quilt making.
At Design Offerings we celebrate the tradition of the persistant pioneering spirit in quilt making and we retain a keen appreciation for precise craftsmanship, pleasing design and traditional colors. However, our love and respect for the path travelled to arrive at the current state of the art in quilting is accompanied by a equally strong sense of excitement and wonder as to what lies behind the doors being opened by today’s artist quilt maker. Filled with a sense of kinship with the painter and sculptor, we eagerly look forward and hope that you, our visitors and customers, will share our excitement for quilts that warm both body and soul!
A Treasure
by Mildred Hatfield
It's more than a coverlet,
More than a spread,
This beautiful quilt
That graces my bed.
It's laughter and sorrow,
It's pleasure and pain,
It's small bits and pieces
Of sunshine and rain.
It's a bright panorama
Of scraps of my life-
It's moments of glory,
It's moments of strife.
It's a story I cherish
Of days that have been,
It's a door I can open
To live them again.
Yes, it's more than a cover,
This much-treasured quilt,
It's parts pieced together
Of the life I have built.
Custom Quilts & Design 
