Susan Shie, a trained painter who began quiltmaking in 1980, is known for works with abundant imagery and a strong sense of materiality. In the 1980s, when this piece was made, she hyper-embellished her quilts with paint, buttons, even crystals. In the case of The Calendar Fetish: An Altar to Time, the surface decorations are not static: the quilt is a functioning perpetual calendar with individual numbers and holidays that can be rearranged to represent any month of any year.