A Little Bit Country

Country Living

I try not to look at magazines because they make me want to make over rooms.  I recently saw some images from Country Living and I was pleasnatly surprised.  It's nice to see them redefining "country."  It's much more fresh and modern.

I never thought I'd admit it but, as Marie Osmond said, "I'm a little bit country."  (And don't you dare say, Who is Marie Osmond?!)

Urban Cottage

When I first showed the guest room makeover, someone suggested I add a quilt to the bed.  It reminded me that I had a bunch of quilts stashed away in the basement and I thought I had the perfect one.

Several years ago, I saw a documentary on PBS about The Quilts of Gee's Bend, Alabama.  If you haven't seen it, you must!  These weren't your granny's calico-printed patterns.  They were beautiful abstract folk art created with whatever the women (and sometimes men!) had on hand and assembled using nothing other than their (great) intuition.



Quilt by Linda Pettway



This make-do quilt is constructed from old work clothes.  See the pockets?



Quilt by Minnie Sue Coleman



Some are intensely colored variations of traditional quilt designs.

Quilt by Mary Lee Bendolph

Others remind me of the abstract work from the mid-20th Century.  The interesting part of that is that many of these quilts predate the work of the abstract artists.

It was at this point I took an interest in quilts that broke the rules and I found many beautiful examples of quilts from the south, primarily East Texas, that were just beautiful works of folk art.  Many of these were made and packed away for special occasions so they're in immaculate condition.  This quilt above has been seen on the bed in guest room...

...and more recently almost cropped out of the photo of the upstairs landing where I've hung it over the banister.

The quilt on the guest room bed now (a variation of a diamonds and geese pattern) is one of my favorites.

When I was painting the little closet between the guest and middle bedrooms, I thought this would be the perfect place to display all of the quilts.

Here's a wider view of that closet and in to the middle bedroom which I've repainted. 

Quilts, wicker, cow print.  I guess you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy.

I'm a little bit country.