"Belly Space Divider"
by Eva Zeisel (b. 1906) |
Quilt Notes: This LIGHT AND DARK 4-patch design contains some bellybuttons, according to a clearly related, though somewhat different pattern, by the famous and marvelously playful ceramicist Eva Zeisel. Born in 1906, she lived to be 105, still hard at work on her creations. Zeisel's sculpture, illustrated left, translates those dips in the middle as belly buttons, just for fun, and so she titled the work "Belly Space Divider." Zeisel also designed a carpet with similar patterns which she called "Dimpled Spindles," a name which would seem to accurately describe this block also.
 LIGHT AND DARK is called LONDON BRIDGE if the four patches are rotated. MONKEY PUZZLE (illustrated right) uses the same basic outline but sets the spool on a diagonal.
The size of the circle used to construct the curved edge of LIGHT AND DARK is drawn around the square of the adjacent patch touching the four corners and intersecting the patches on both sides. The inner circle has a diameter of 1/4 of the width of the patch and is appliquéd.
See the tiling below.
Like contemplating a mandala, drafting and studying a quilt design can sometimes produce a meditative response, evoking mental clarity and harmony, and this is one of those special patterns. See Barbara Brackman's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PIECED QUILT PATTERNS, #1522, p.199. The design was first published in the magazine, Aunt Kate's Quilting Bee in 1963.
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LIGHT AND DARK (with Eva Zeisel)
