Two-sided quilt: Strips

To locate a quilt whose entire being is exactly antithetical to Loretta Pettway's more austere masterpieces, one might conjure the image—rather, images, since it is a fully developed double-sided quilt—of Mary Spencer's opulent masterpiece. The effervescent energy and eccentricity of shape make this quilt unique. It is a heavy object, with materials ranging from cotton flannel to wool. The flaring shape is so irregular that it has to be intentional, and its designs, on both sides, make it virtually indescribable in the language of quilt patterns. The only thing one can say is that it takes the strip quilt as its point of departure. It is difficult to know in the case of the fifty-three-year-old Mary Spencer whether a large number of such remarkable quilts exists, or ever did. She says, "I made my first quilts when I was real young, still at home, about twelve or thirteen. . . . I had a bunch of old quilts, but my husband burnt them up back a while ago. We was thinking they was good for nothing."