The Four Elements

• 62" W x 62" H
• Cotton fabrics, ribbon and inked details, cotton batting
• Machine pieced, appliquéd, and quilted
• Original, commissioned design (except for sailing ship)
• Pattern available

Also see the individual lighthouses shown in the corners of this quilt: Assateague, Cape Henry, Hooper Strait (St. Michaels), and Pooles Island.

Artist’s Statement

Throughout all of our history, humans have had to battle the elements. Our civilizations grew as we learned how to overcome our natural perils, and change them to tools for our use and advancement.

Lighthouses are an universal symbol of safety and strength, of our power to overcome danger from the elements at sea.

This quilt grew out of my enthusiasm for portraying landscape in quilt form. I reduce a scene to a minimum of elements, and simplify perspective. I enjoy choosing a variety of fabrics to portray both natural and artificial portions in a realistic way.

The five lighthouses were chosen for their proximity to the Chesapeake Bay area (Assateague is on the Atlantic coast of Virginia), and their visual interest and variety. The color scheme is polychromatic: the primary and secondary colors excluding violet. The design reflects the four elements, both in repetitions of certain sections in fours (four lighthouse scenes, four sun sections, etc.) and in both explicit and implicit visual symbols of earth, air, water, and fire. This quilt was at times a joy for me to design and make, at other times a strain on my mental and dexterous capabilities. The border design was particularly troublesome. I decided on a Flying Geese variation for the top and bottom borders (an “air” element). The side borders use the same triangle units, but are a variation of “Streak of Lightning” (a “fire” element); except the blue zigzags down the middle, reminiscent of a wave or river (a “water” element).

The quilt is machine-pieced and machine-quilted. The only handwork was inking details on the lighthouses. Ribbon was used for some of the other lighthouse details, particularly railings. The orange triangles in the borders are folded so they are three-dimensional; some of the sails on the ship are also three-dimensional.

Susan Redstreake Geary designed the “Pride of Baltimore II” sailing ship. All other parts of the quilt are my original designs. The quilt and pattern was commissioned by Quilt Studio of Ellicott City, Maryland.