"America From the Heart" 07-04-19

This afternoon I was looking for a book on my quilting bookshelves and came across the book "America From the Heart: Quilters Remember September 11, 2001".

It seems so sad on this day of saber rattling in Washington, DC. to page through those quilts made to help each of us endure the shock, horror, and pain of that terrible attack on our nation and the murder of so many innocent civilians.  

The quilts first appeared together at the Quilt Festival in Houston in October 2001.  The book originated there and was supported by Karey Bresenhan who wrote the foreword and published by C&T Publishers in 2002.  There were about 300 quilts and I am proud that mine was one of them.  It isn't my best work, I did a lot of crying at that time in my life and found it difficult to concentrate on anything.  

The book is full of flag images which seemed somehow reassuring to me on this rather frightening 4th of July with tanks rolling on the Mall in Washington.  We are, I think, skating on thin ice these days in our relations with other countries.  I fear what may be in our future and these quilt certain represent what could happen.  

If you have a copy on your shelf, take a look at these works of our hands and our hearts.  

"New Growth"  Del Thomas  2001  14"x14"

Commercial and hand-dyed cottons, cotton thread and batting.

Machine pieced and quilted.  Fusing.  

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More Looking Back 11-05-11

Looking at "Last Walk in Autumn" and thinking about when and how it was made jogged my memory about a previous quilt.  This was one I made for the first round of Journal Quilts, a project started by Karey Bresenhan via Quilt Art list.  For me the project was a 'shot in the arm' or a 'kick in the pants', depending on the angle!  Being forced (by my own commitment) to do a little 8.5" X 11" quilt each month made me focus and spend some time in my sewing room.  I had been in a 'dry' spot (as I am now) and unable to concentrate on any one project.  This was truly my first effort at printing on fabric and I wasted half a dozen attempts before this one seemed to work.  One thing I discovered was that over printing was closer to my vision than printing on solid fabrics.  In a similar way I had previously discovered that marbling on color rather than white gave me more usable fabric.  I don't think this imagery is quite successful as the three shapes should be lighter as they recede in the distance.  I worked on that with the images of Floyd in the 2007 piece.  When I looked more closely at this piece I noticed that I quilted the background with hand stitching.  I don't have a clear memory of why I did that, but I suspect that I felt it needed some quilting but machine stitching, which makes a harsher line, was too much.  I haven't done much hand quilting in the last ten years because of arthritis, but I think I will make a note to use it for a softer line. 

 
"Remembering Constance"  Del Thomas 2002  8.5"W x 11"L

This little Journal Quilt is in memory of my friend Constance Howard of Chiswick, London, England,  who died in July 2000.  She was such a treasure to everyone who knew her and a joy on a road trip.  On one trip we spent a night in a tent cabin at White Wolf Lodge in Yosemite and took a long walk in the woods - as any English woman I have ever met she was a great walker.  She always wore a little self made cap and had designed this great black jacket that she practically lived in.  She was a writer and a great teacher - witty and wise - and told hysterical tales about her travels around the world.