Museum of the American Quilter's Society

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VAM galleries including this work:
Museum of the American Quilter’s Society | How’d They Do That? || VAM Home

Iris Aycock (Alabama, b. 1935)

HAMMERED AT HOME, 1994

Cottons; machine-pieced and -quilted; 78" X 79"

Museum of the American Quilter’s Society, 1996.01.13

Commenting on Hammered at Home, Iris Aycock says, “This quilt introduced me to a wonderful way to incorporate my immediate environment in my quilts. The images found on this quilt were made by taking leaves from trees; placing them directly on muslin treated with a mordant; and hammering the liquid, which is the dye, out of each leaf. The separate leaf images of kiwi leaves, tulip poplar, ferns, and sweet gum surround the very large juvenile Empress tree leaf. These hand-hammered block designs were arranged to form the design of the quilt, and penwork was added to delineate the veins in the leaves.”

This quilt won the RJR Best Wall Quilt Award at the 1994 American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show and Contest.

About the Artist

Iris Aycock of Woodville, Alabama, made a few quilts in the early 1970s as colorful bed coverings for her children. Her mother had made quilts as gifts. After not making any more quilts for many years, she began again—first with bed quilts, then wall quilts, and then framed pieces. Quilting has since changed from a hobby to a full-time occupation for her. Juried into the Southern Highland Craft Guild in 1995, she exhibits and sells her work at the guild’s fairs and shops.

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Classroom Ideas

Discussion: This quilt incorporates the immediate environment by using leaves. To make the images, the artist placed leaves on muslin fabric and hammered out the chlorophyll, which serves as dye. (It’s similar to what happens when you get grass stains on the knees of your pants.) If you were creating a hammered-leaf quilt, what time of year would you choose to collect leaves for your art? Describe how leaves change through the seasons.

Activities: Record how leaves change by collecting them from the same tree during each season of the year. Pound their images onto fabric and record the changes. Identify the trees that produce each of the leaves found on Iris Aycock’s quilt. Do these trees exist in your region of the country?