Mid-Century Monday: Patchwork quilt by Alexander Girard

photo from Alexander Girard by Todd Oldham and Keira Coffee

This grainy image is tantalizing proof that Alexander Girard made—or at least designed—a quilt! It’s from a bedroom Girard designed for the Scoren house in 1977. The fabrics are his own stripes, checkers, and probably solids or woven textures (from what I can tell), with a simple piecing pattern of squares. It’s so exciting to see one of my design heroes working in my own medium!

I’m sharing this today because I’m just about to set off for Seattle, where one of the lectures I’m giving is Mid-Century Modern Quilts. Though I don’t know much about Girard’s quilt, it’s a great point of connection between the work of well-known mid-century designers and mid-century styles in quiltmaking.

Bonus Girard quilting connection: quilt artist Jean Ray Laury thanks him in the acknowledgments in her book Wood Applique...perhaps the “high” designers of the period and their craft-oriented colleagues were closer connected that we might think....