Kate Graves Makes Quilts

George Davison was first encountered by me on a rooftop at a party in downtown Santa Barbara, CA in 1985.   There was a colossal sky full of stars. We were looking at the Milky Way, and had both recently read the “Electric Kool Aid Acid Test”.  He has a way of being in interesting places at interesting times.  As a raconteur, he is unparalleled. When I came home to SB he was one of the people to track down.   If anything interesting and worthwhile was happening in our sleepy beach town, he’d be in on it, would tell me about it, and often I was welcome to tag along.  His musical talent is undeniable: while I knew him, he played lead guitar for the aptly named Bitch Magnet, but his legendary status long preceeded that incarnation.  When word came that he’d been fighting cancer I figured it was time to rally.  A number of our mutual friends contributed fabric to the project.  Scott Williams, a Bay Area artist, created a number of amazing stenclied blocks which elevate this quilt to the fine art level.  Katherine, William and Cecil de Mille joined Patty Smith, Simone White and Robin Robinson in giving fabric.  One fun weekend found me, Harriet Mc Caig and Nicholas Croft in a fabric blitz, sipping champagne and listening to tunes while figuring out which block should go where.  All I can say is, the best projects have serious meaning attached.  The intent all along was to make something from all our disparate parts, something useful to keep our friend warm and to remind him we love him, near or far.

My favorite thing to do in quilting is to make something specifically for someone I care about.  Recently I have been fortunate to work on a few of these sort of projects.  The idea of adaptive re-use is one shared with a number of artists I know, notably my dear friends David Carrow and Michelle Post.  Both are incredibly talented, accomplished makers in their own rights, and their combined forces have resulted in an evolving collaborative process which is an inspiration to all who know them.  Tuesday evenings are a time for friends to work on creative projects together at my house- often we have a jigsaw puzzle going, and once completed they go to Post for incorporation in her work.  We decided to barter- she’ll do over a(n) Hoosier cabinet I have which needs her wild and wonderful treatment, and I’d make a quilt for her & DC.  The process was great fun- I have a lot of fabric with fish patterns, and Post is a Pisces.  Carrow is a Sadge, (like me) a fire sign.  He served in the Navy and shares a love for sailing with Post, so we chose a number of nautical themes to work into the design.  I always encourage participation in fabric selection for custom pieces- Post was clever in hunting down some good stuff from her local Millville fabric store, including the backing and border fabrics.  This is the quilt in progress:

The finished piece is shown under “Custom” in my website.