David Grunenwald, MFA, honed his wood marquetry skills over 20 years of restoring highly inlaid antique billiard tables. In 2008, Dave started Quiltboxes, an enterprise that combines his woodcraft and fine arts background with his wife Beth’s appreciation of vintage quilts. Translating best-loved quilt blocks into finely handcrafted wooden keepsake boxes, Dave uses beautiful and exotic hardwood veneers to reinterpret historic designs. Quiltboxes evoke the comfort of cherished heirloom quilts and the timeless strength of fine wood furniture. The Quiltboxes studio is in a former 19th-century blacksmith’s shop in New York's Capital Region.

Why quilt block patterns? Dave explains:

When Beth first suggested quilt block patterns for my boxes I said "What are quilt blocks?"

Once I saw the thousands of quilt patterns and focused in on the old traditional blocks we liked best, I started to notice that many of these patterns are interesting and thoughtful abstractions. During my MFA work, I dealt with the relationship of an abstracted form and the title I gave it, to understand how the title holds you by the hand to show you an image that's greater than the sum of its component shapes.

I see the same process at work when I look at many of these quilt patterns. The block called Log Cabin is made up of simple rectangles around a center square, but that square is almost always colored red, and that's the fire in the chimney!  Storm At Sea is composed of triangles and squares, but it conveys an illusion of waves in motion.

Some traditional blocks provide a secondary pattern that only emerges when multiple blocks are pieced together into a whole quilt. Amish Star has a primary star in the block itself, but a different star forms where the blocks come together. I find surprising and unique patterns emerge when we put the blocks around a cube, allowing a secondary 3D pattern to pop out at the corners, such as a cube, a star, or even a little animal face.

I've chosen to work with hardwood veneers because veneer cutting reveals the most dramatic character of the wood, and because veneer is the most economical way to utilize the valuable resource of a special tree. In fact, the best logs with the most interesting and vibrant woods are not used to make lumber - they go to the veneer houses. I build my boxes from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified plywood using furniture grade birch or cherry, which provides a beautiful and environmentally conscious base for the pieces.

I don't use colored stains, but rely on the inherent grain pattern, the shimmery figure, and the natural color of the woods. Choosing the woods, our "fabrics", to piece these patterns together is one of the most enjoyable parts of the Quiltboxes process.