Quilt No. 88
January 2013
I always feel that a sort of collaboration has taken
place when I take a quilt class or learn a new technique from another quilter.
Any kind of inspiration that starts me off on a new quilt gives me that wondrous
feeling. Usually, the source of my
inspiration is pretty elusive – I don’t get many calls from Fred Turner or
Randy Bachman (Blue Collar) or Tommy James (Crystal Blue Persuasion).
The “collaboration” that resulted in Goin’ Global was
entirely different. The Timmins
Quilters’ Guild was lucky enough to host Kathy Wylie for one of her dynamic and
interesting talks last fall. Goin’ Gobal began in a workshop she
taught at Lori’s Sewing Place.
But first, let’s move back in time a little. I credit
my unabated lust for quilting to my Grandmother. When I was four or five years old she would
sit me down with a jar of buttons, a piece of cotton, and a needle and thread.
I would be spellbound for hours. At
times both the buttons and the cloth would be sewn to my pants or the sofa, but
she pretended not to notice. Shortly
after I mastered button sewing, I graduated to embroidering my name on every
tea towel that wasn't nailed down. I've loved needlework in any form since
then.
It was the same with paper snowflakes. I don’t remember the teacher who
first taught me how to take those painfully blunt school scissors and cut out
paper snowflakes. It’s something I still do now and then for the
sheer joy of cutting paper and seeing what will be revealed.
Kathy Wylie’s creative adaptation of the paper
snowflake technique has resulted in her striking and award winning quilts. For me, her “sewflake” technique has an irresistible
pull. It’s a wonderful example of what
makes quilting not just good, but great – the willingness of quilters to share
their knowledge. When so many activities
have been reduced to mere acts of competitiveness, quilting culture still
fosters camaraderie with the sharing of “secrets” and discoveries.
And it’s
no big secret that I have a fondness for penguins. Who doesn't adore those stoic, waddling,
black and white birds that have cast aside flight in favour of swimming? So when Kathy encouraged us to choose
favourite objects or shapes to launch our in-class creations, I chose penguins.
After a bit of happy trial and error, I
ended up with twelve penguins holding wingtips and dancing in a circle .
My
next task was to figure out what twelve penguins might encircle. In the wild it would most likely be twelve
other penguins, but one could easily end up with way too many penguins trapped
on a quilt. Maybe…a globe of the
Earth? A lovely idea, but one I’d used too
many times already. A snow globe? It provided whimsy and magic with a quiet
snowfall sifting down on a tiny village.
I printed out the village portion of a snow globe image I purchased on
the internet, but used my own dyed background and foregrounds for the globe. To create the illusion that it was snowing, I
painted a piece of cotton with my beloved Setacolor
dyes and sprinkled ground up oatmeal flakes on it while it was still wet. Success in only two tries!
The
penguins were hand appliquéd onto the background over the snow globe. The white portions of their bodies were fused
to the dark part and outlined with hand embroidery. It was definitely more fun
than adding my name to a tea towel. When
the piece was finished I trapunto’d (stuffed) the snow globe to give it the
nice rounded shape.
I
added some radiating dark “flame” shapes.
It was kind of dull looking until I found the intense blue swirly star
fabric in my stash. The penguins seemed to approve of that. The quilt began to look like Southern Lights or
perhaps a giant splash-down. I like to
have a quilt that remains open to interpretation.
It allows others to come up with their own idea of what the quilt might
have to say. I was thrilled by
interpretive comments from friends. One,
a poet, wrote to me that this quilt was “almost like a fresh dahlia growing and
sending life into the universe. The circle village seems enveloped by
comforting leaves of hope and life. Radiant stars encourage sparkling appreciation
of living in today's world”. For her,
the penguins were “holding hands as they encircle the world with love and
helping hands. ... If humankind did this - what an amazing healing world we
could share.” I was humbled by her interpretation of the blue rays “of light
suggesting that we need to keep our hearts and minds open to one another - to
try to be non-judgmental - to share and improve what we can in a world of
incredible beauty and yet so much suffering.”
Another
friend viewed the quilt as an expression of environmental concern. “I see this as a reminder from our vulnerable
friends, that even though they are supposed to be living in a cool blue world,
things are heating up everywhere, and although the "flames" have just
recently manifested in their environment, and are still weak (blue), they will
be progressing in our lifetime to hot yellows and reds. Then where will our
little friends be?”
Yet
again I am elated at the power of fabric to speak to us in so many unexpected
ways.
