My Favorite Quilt

You know how people ask you which is your favorite? Of course it’s like saying which is your favorite child in some ways….having given birth and nurtured (or, in the case of a quilt, nurtured and then given birth!) an offspring you have a lot invested in them and it’s hard to despise even the doggiest product. However, I find there’s always such a gap between the golden vision in my head and the actual piece that when I first finish them I’m usually very disappointed. Thank goodness, unlike children, quilts can be put away in a cupboard for a while!

After a few months of maturation in the QSR (quilt storage room aka spare bedroom), I’ll bring a piece out to see if it’s improved any with Not Being Stared At Gloomily(NBSAG). There was one quilt that I made about 8 years ago, it went off to a few shows and then straight into the cupboard. I’ve always loved that piece but it was a bit of a one-off and no one has ever wanted to buy it.

It was a piece about water and has so many memories and links related to it. A friend and I were in Kerr Grabowski’s deconstructed screen printing class and Kerr challenged us to choose a theme and make as many screens as we could related to that scheme. I chose water.

I had just had a great boat ride from the Northumberland coast (England) out to the Farne Islands– little rock covered islets now reserved for birds. There used to be a light house there and Grace Darling, the daughter of the lighthouse keeper in 1838, was a heroine well known to British children for many years – especially the girls of course! – for rescuing many half drowned souls from sinking ships.

Thinking of all the different movements of the water on the way to the islands I made several screens and printed fabric. I even incorporated a Big Splash (from David Hockney’s famous painting).

While looking for this image I came across a neat YouTube piece that steals both the splash from Hockney and the dog from Wegman!

Crouched over a very hot computer in very sticky Georgia I rather wish I was jumping into a pool after a ball!!

David Hockney is still painting Big by the way. He has returned to Bridlington in Yorkshire (where I used to go for summer holidays as a child). His latest picture is of

Bigger Trees near Warter (sic) and he gave it to the Tate in London challenging other famous artists to do likewise.
It is 40 ft by 15ft and is made up of 50 panels.

Hmm…. I wonder what a quilt would look like in 50 panels?

I had an email from my friend painter Margaret Scanlan today – she has a show in Hendersonville, NC featuring another polyptych – I love the dynamism of this piece – maybe another idea to consider!!!

And if you have been…thanks for reading.

Oh!! And my favorite? Well that’s it at the top!! And, of course, I do have other offspring I’m quite partial to….

Elizabeth