Quilts With Depth

This past Fall I posted a story about a local art show I participated in, and the artist exchange that resulted (please click here to read that story). I joined the Watertown Arts Council after the show, and have been added to their mailing list. So, the story continues:

Sommer and Trey come over every Wednesday after school to hang out with us. On one of those Wednesdays I showed them a flyer I’d received from the Watertown Arts Council, advertising an art contest they were hosting called the “Joy of Art”. As we talked about whether or not they wanted to enter the contest, they started asking me about a quilt I have hanging above our front entry.

I explained that I learned how to draft it using a “vanishing point” in a class I took way back in 1991. Katie Pasquini is a talented quilter and a great teacher ~ and my love for geometry made this class so exciting.

We drafted and stitched some interesting blocks in that class. I also drafted a long “corridor” with a “box” behind it, and went home wondering what I would ever do with it.

Well, the next year I read in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine that they were hosting a competition to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus discovering America entitled “Discovering a New World in Quiltmaking”. At this point I’d only been quilting for 4 years and had never made an art quilt. So, when a vision popped into my mind, I shook my head and wondered how I could ever make that quilt. In essence I saw (in my mind) the world as a quilter would have seen it in 1491, flat earth and all. Columbus’ ships would obviously reach a point where they tumbled off the edge of the world and into a void. This void would be filled with quilt block stars, and a sparkling dragon ~ ready to gobble them up (crazy, I know!)

The first question I asked myself was “how would I do it?”, and the second was “how would I give it depth?”. Then that drawing came to mind. After a lot of trail and error, “1491 – A Quilter’s View” became the first art quilt I ever made for competition:

The dragon is hand quilted in metallic thread, and the stars were template pieced using lamé. I made the ships with my Repliqué technique, and the white orb in the box is the moon because it had no where else to go when the sun was shining above. The kids loved the story and wanted to learn how to draft perspective using a vanishing point.

So we grabbed paper, pencils and rulers, and I did a quick vanishing point demo, thinking they would tire of it quickly. Sommer was mildly interested:

but Trey, who usually doesn’t care much for drawing and coloring, was hooked. I showed them how to make a “road” first. Then we made a “box” like the quilt above our door.

He decided to connect them and make a road going into the box – with a door at the end! Then he wanted crayons to color it in.

As he began coloring I realized I had to leave for my ThreadBenders meeting. Grandpa was making dinner as I flew out the door (he is a blessing!). I joined my friends and, as I told them about the afternoon’s events, they asked if I took any photos. I called Mike and he said they were still drawing! I’m very grateful he took these pics!

I came home to Trey’s drawing and knew I had to enter it in the art show. I was amazed at all the fun details he included in his joyful picture.

Trey called his quilt Hallway Road and I entered it in the youth category. There were many fun pieces in that one.

I decided to enter my Citrus Splash quilt in the adult category. It was a viewer’s choice competition. Trey didn’t place in the show, but my quilt tied for first place 😁!

I loved Trey’s work and asked him if I could hang it in our computer room. He said yes. I think we’ll get him a “drawing perspective” book for kids this Christmas. Gotta encourage the creativity 😀.