I have a long, sporadic history of making pieced cotton pillow covers and quilts. I made my first quilt in 1977. In the early 1990s I happened to flip through a copy of
A Treasury of Amish Quilts by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman in a fabric store. Inside those pages I discovered the
Amish quilt pattern called
Broken Dishes, and I've been fascinated by it ever since. I love the straightforward, graphic use of solid colored cotton fabrics that
Amish quilt makers employ.
And Broken Dishes is barely a pattern at all - the order of the triangles is the only requirement. The color arrangement is random - or so it seems. As you can see below, I made considerable effort to orchestrate the arrangement for this pillow.
Here are the triangles, cut from 2" squares, laid out on the counter. I spent quite a bit of time moving them around until I was satisfied.
The finished top. I think I managed to keep all but one row in the desired order! I adore the fact that a mistake like getting the pieces out of order is easily incorporated into the whole.
Here's the cover stuffed with a 20"x20" down & feather pillow insert. Hey, what's that black fuzzy thing on the right side?
Oh . . . it's my little helper, Miss Bettie!
This pillow was a gift for my dear friend D. It looks really nice on the blue couch in her office.
Last Saturday, S. and I wandered over to the Hessel Museum at Bard College to have a look at the exhibit Home/Not at Home. The show was okay - there are a few standout pieces. I found most of the work in the collection to be clever, but lacking heart.
As we walked toward the museum door, the breeze picked up, and we heard, behind us, the distinctive sound of a flag - a big, substantial one - unfurling and snapping in the wind.
Expecting to see the Stars and Stripes, we turned, and . . . surprise!
The flag was made by David Shrigley. 
