By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador

I’ve been thinking about the evolution of quilt design. If you stop to consider it, people had to design their quilts even as America was born, and in other cultures, long before that.

Star of Bethlehem
Maker Unidentified
1850 – 1870
Probably made in Maryland or Ohio
Hand-pieced, hand-quilted; International Quilt Museum

How did a quilter go about designing her next project in 1850? Was paper for drawing readily available to her? I don’t imagine she had a design wall. Perhaps she looked at a friend’s quilt and took that as her inspiration.

Myrtle M. Fortner (American, 1880-1966), The Matterhorn Quilt, 1934, cotton, Neusteter Textile Collection: Gift of Melvin Dorsett.
Denver Art Museum

How did Myrtle Fortner conceive her Matterhorn masterpiece in 1880? This quilt took serious planning, just as I imagine the one above it required.

Competition Quilt, unknown artist, American, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, late 1800s, cotton, Neusteter Textile Collection: Gift of Guido Goldman.

And what about this, Competition Quilt, perhaps my favorite antique quilt of all time? How I wish the maker had signed her name, because oh my word, she deserves credit for this beauty. I just have to wonder: Did she design it as she went? Did she have a pre-planned master concept? Was it ever sketched on paper?

I have the luxury of quilt design software. I can change the colors with a couple of clicks.

I confess that I’d be a less successful quilt designer if I couldn’t design on a computer. Even pencil and paper would be dicey for me.

Color Coded, designed and made by Diane Harris. Quilted by Julie Lechner @beenquiltin. Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting®. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

You can see by comparing the flat shot of the actual quilt above with the EQ rendering below that the quilt usually ends up looking a lot like I intended it to.

All of this means that I am even more impressed with antique quilts and their design intricacies than I would be if I didn’t have modern tools at my disposal.

I’ll continue to use quilt design software, graph paper and pencil and a design wall because they help me to do quality work. But I won’t ever forget how makers of the past designed unbelievable works of art with so, so much less.