Marianne Clay: Writer and Editor

Lancaster County Quilts You can’t look at a handmade quilt, even the simplest one, without admiring it and wondering about who made it. After all, making just one pieced quilt requires careful planning followed by hours and hours of meticulous cutting, piecing, and stitching. But, in the quilt world, serious collectors most prize the quilts made by Lancaster County’s Amish women from the mid-19th-century to the mid-20th-century. To own one of these quilts is every collector’s dream. Quilt aficionados prize the Amish quilts from Lancaster for their striking color and strong geometic design; for the fine wool fabric used into the 1930s; and for the tiny and skillful stitches done in dark thread. In style, these quilts can be distinguished from others by their wide borders, contrasting color binding, and large corner blocks. While you might already know how highly regarded Amish quilts from Lancaster are, you might not know the Amish did not bring a quilt-making tradition with them wh...