Colorado Log Cabin by Judy Martin about 1983
We worked together at the magazine in the eighties. She lived in Colorado and was an editor. I mailed the editors articles in manila envelopes. It was fun to be at the center of what was happening. Judy had kids and moved to Iowa. But she never stopped making innovative quilts. (She counts over 250.)
35 years later quilters are still making Judy's Colorado Log Cabin (and not giving her enough credit.) It's the perfect example of an updated classic. She simply added a couple of seams to create secondary patterns. Brilliant!
Supernova is up in Iowa now
Red Sky at Night
Cobblestones
Over the years she has designed simple quilts and complex quilts.
Galileo's Star from the exhibit.
And simple quilts that look complex.
Hollywood Boulevard
Some of her designs are so "of course" that people tend to think they have always been around and they are free to use her ideas without any credit. All the pictures on this page are copyrighted by Judy Martin.
Wedding Bands with its staggered star borders
has been influential recently
She's written over 20 books and published most of them with husband Steve.
One of my favorites is an early book Patchworkbook, a design how-to for piecing.
Scrap Quilts is another early favorite. There is Colorado Log Cabin
on the top shelf.
Judy is from San Diego and grew up with a "mother who sewed and a father whose engineering profession encouraged mathematical practicality. She was at home with the sewing machine and with graph paper at an early age."
Flowering Star
Judy really did a lot to define the end-of-the-20th-century quilt and she is working on the 21st century now with new techniques and traditional designs.
Wave on Wave
Capistrano is in her 2010 book Stellar Quilts.
It's a variation on Flying Swallows.
See a post on the traditional block here:
Iowa Quilt Museum
Winterset is a 3 hour drive from Lincoln, Nebraska so you could see two of your favorite quiltmakers' work in one midwestern trip. Edyta Sitar's quilts are at IQSC's Quilt House in Lincoln, Judy Martin's in Iowa.