Recent decades have seen surges of acclaim for crafts deemed women’s work, especially those that involve textiles. Quilts, of course, leap to mind, their patterns both figurative and abstract. So do samplers and other forms of embroidered imagery. Much of this work involves scraps of fabric—leftover materials or viable bits salvaged from worn clothing. The pieces are fit together in larger formats and transfigured into art. This exhibition at MFA Boston looks at 20 Chinese patchwork textiles—pieces from rural villages in the Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces. The patterns are mind-blowing, modernist, and remind us that artistic vision flowers and flourishes in humble settings, no fancy academies necessary. —Laura Jacobs