A new series of quilts is coming along. Using a basic format of four foot by six foot, quilted with an undulating wave patterned after utilitarian packing blankets, these quilts can withstand serious use. Because I’ve been collecting for a long time, there’s a lot of patterns and colors to choose from. Rather than control the whole process from beginning to end, this series gives numerous other people an opportunity to participate. The best part, for me, is seeing how people identify with certain fabrics: their choices are a reflection of their own aesthetic.
At the Mercer County Teen Arts festival this year, I asked 40 students to select fabric from a big pile. They picked at random; ironing, cutting, pinning and joining their two fabrics with the available iron and sewing machine. They did all the work themselves, with supervision but little intervention on my part.
Here is the result: I added the blue fabric with the poppy print to help unify the composition.
The back is composed of fabric given to me by friends, which is both cheerful and funky with the repeating pattern of squirting tubes.
My friend Harriet completed her second quilt, and gave me the leftover fabric – including some 12″ squares she’d made following a checkerboard pattern in a distinctive palette including acid green, turquoise, harvest gold and lemon yellow. Alternate 12″ squares were pieced from my collection of curious scraps.
Marimekko back in two colorways:
This is another assemblage mostly using Harriet’s fabric, with a few unusual additions from my collection:
Michelle Post picked the backing, which is another cheerful Marimekko fabric:
