Dots Amoré

Dots Amoré 1994

Hand dyed and commercial cottons, machine pieced, machine quilted 48x37.5 $500

I gotta say, I love this title. It makes me laff when I remember naming this piece.

Back in 1994 I was just midway through graduate school and was worried about making a living as a quilter. Laura Wasilowski and I were already doing quilts shows selling our hand dyed fabrics and threads, and I knew I needed a more steady income (Dave kept reminding me), so I decided I would try and teach classes in my home. Oy!

It worked and I managed to get a roomful of tables and students to occupy them, but it was a real parking hassle. One of the classes involved making lots of freely cut units and making a quilt from them, improvisationally. Half square triangles, wedgies, and log cabins mostly. It was simple and even beginners would find it easy. Or so I thought. There were many who wanted exact measurements, which I was fighting against the whole way. This class was the first in which I repeated my mantra “It doesn’t matter” over and over again.

If it’s too small, add more fabric. If it’s too big, cut it to fit. Simple stuff, but of course it went against the grain of many.

In the detail above, I used some scraps that had been machine embroidered, pearl cotton size 8 in the bobbin, and sliced up to make the half square triangle piece. Woowoo. I laff again.