"Drunkard's Path" variation in medallion format

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    Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio
c. 1970
Cotton and cotton/polyester blend
85 x 81 inches
Collection of
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

Among Lucy T.’s most remarkable quilts is a forceful, multicolored, illusionistic design that looks completely haphazard, especially toward the edges. But all the squares in this quilt are the same: they might be in different colors, but they all have a quarter circle in one corner. Depending on the way the squares are pieced, the quarter circles can create concentric squares, as at the center of the quilt, or alternating patterns, as around the edges. The breakdown in the pattern from center to side is reinforced by her selection of colors and fabrics. Solid yellow and pink at the center give way to mixtures of preprinted fabrics in a multitude of colors, predominantly green, blue, and red, toward the edges. "A lady in Alberta had a quilt hanging out," Lucy explains. "I asked her how you make that. She cut me one piece. I turn one this way, one that way."