ALL PHOTOGRAPH S COU RT ESY PEO PLE 'S PLAC E QU ILT M U SE U M.
to mind motherhood, domestic
warmth, and the domestic arts," says
Eleanor Levie, author of Great Little
Quilts, a book about crib and doll-size
quilts.
"These quilts exude a feeling of the
kinds of values that many people still
believe in but don't practice — values
of community and family," says mu-
seum curator Rachel Pellman.
"They're so simple, but in that
simplicity they say so much."
It was those very aspects that drew
Sue Bender to the quilts. In Plain and
Simple, Bender describes how she saw
her first Amish quilts in Sag Harbor,
New York, in 1967, and became in-
tensely intrigued and moved by them:
"The quilts spoke to such a deep
place inside me that I felt them
reaching out, trying to tell me
something, but my mind was thor-
oughly confused:" she writes. "How
could pared-down and daring go
"Sunshine and Shadow," (portion)
circa 1930, cotton, rayon and wool.
This quilt shows the use of
contrasting, vivid colors, a practice
popular among Lancaster County
Amish quilters in the early 1900s.
together? How could a quilt be calm
and intense at the same time?"
"I loved artists like Barnett Newman
and IMarkl Rothko, and the quilts
reminded me of their works," said Ms.
Bender in a recent interview from her
home in San Francisco. "They were
so alive, so dynamic and exciting. I
looked at them and I could feel my
heart pounding."
Eventually, Ms. Bender's fascination
with the quilts led her to live with two
Amish families for several weeks.
There's little doubt that the women
who produced the quilts causing such
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