Years ago, I stupidly, and repeatedly, put a Double Wedding Ring quilt — which I used to cover a round end table — in the wash. It eventually disintegrated, to my lasting dismay, because it was the only physical evidence of the quilting skills of maternal great-grandmother Rebecca Crisp (née Stephens, 1878-1956). She was a farmer’s wife from Floyd County, Kentucky, a descendant of pioneer settlers. When Christopher Farr invited me to participate in Threads of Light, I thought instantly of that 1930s quilt. Family lore recounts that my great-grandmother loved flowers — especially dahlias, which she grew in repurposed coffee cans — so I selected fabrics in patterns and colourways that are suggestive of gardens she might have admired and even dreamed of cultivating.
Mitchell Owens is the American Editor of The World of Interiors. A journalist and lecturer since the 1980s, he specialises in interiors, architecture, gardens, and the history of style. Prior to joining The World of Interiors, he was the Decorative Arts Editor of Architectural Digest, where he hosted the The AD Aesthete podcast. Mitch has been a reporter and columnist at the New York Times, was a founding editor of the LGTBQ magazine Out, and held editorial positions at Nest, ELLE Decor, Traditional Home, and Travel + Leisure. He has co-authored several books, mostly recently Shingle and Stone: Thomas Kligerman Houses (Rizzoli, 2022) and interior decorator Alex Papachristidis’s monograph The Elegant Life (Rizzoli, 2022).
Please note that as this purchase is part of a charity project, we kindly ask that anyone who purchases a quilt will need to contact us to arrange shipment of the quilt or arrange collection directly from the exhibition in Nantucket.
