Racing Stripes
Commercial cottons, some polished, machine pieced and hand quilted, 59x59" 1984
O my. Something really old. Just so you know I paid my dues early on, and was one of the first to rip off Nancy Crow. I saw her work in an early quilting magazine and thought how fabulously simple it would be to make a quilt like hers. GREAT BIG blocks, like 16" square instead of a zillion little 6 inch squares, like quilts were supposed to be made ( says Mom). This is not a copy, it is an 'inspired by' design.
In those days I knew no other quilters, just my mom and her sister, and there were no nearby quilt shops, or ha! shops online (19 frickin' 84!) so I was left with Sears, or Ben Franklin or the local remnant bin at the drapery shop. I was lucky to find cotton at all. And my batting was thick polyester, designed for bedspreads.
Hand quilting was the only thing I knew to do to make this a real quilt. You can tell that someone was messing with my head in those days.
and wavy intersecting lines for the sides. I thought I was so innovative using pieced binding. O my again.
This quilt is one of many old pieces in which I used lots of black. It has been washed numerous times and of course the black faded quite a bit. It turned chilly last night and at 4am I got it out and tossed it onto the bed. Doesn't smell too bad.
You know I would like this because of the black and white check. I can't resist anything that has black and white check!
ReplyDeleteWow! It's fun to see some of your earlier pieces.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving this retrospective! So interesting to hear the attitude you have toward your old work, I thought it seemed so strange but then I realized that I have the same thing about my earlier stuff. I'm glad we all made it past 1984 and all the amazing options available now!!
ReplyDeleteJames would go crazy over this. He's into cars you know and this screams Indy 500 and such. ove it and look how great you lined up those b&w squares. I have some of that fabric-I may have to "borrow" your design for something similar.
ReplyDeleteAWESOME! That hand quilting is just freakingly unbelieveably mindbloggling. How did you wrap your mind around that to conceive and complete it? I tell you my mind would stop at the conception...lol.
ReplyDeleteI know you got your mind back, because of your equally fabulous machine quilting.
Dear Anon,
ReplyDeleteThanks, but really....
It's amazing what one will do when one wants desperately to impress one's Mom and Aunt. Even if one is in one's mid thirties.
Wow! It's great to see some of your earlier work. When did you first realize that you were not afraid of color? Were you always like that, or did it evolve? I'm nosy, I know, but very curious about your progression into intense color. I love your color sense by the way.
ReplyDeleteLiving in Mexico was very liberating for me; my house was purple, green, rosey terracotta, and gold....and that was the outside! LOL
My anglo neighbors kept trying to get me to paint it white or beige.
I love the pieced binding! I would not care if it has been done before, it is just wonderful. It could do as the only color element on a monochromatic square.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love it... you were a real groundbreaker back then weren't you... breaking all the rules :-).
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be down... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my post if you do!
ReplyDeleteI would appreciate if a staff member here at fibermania.blogspot.com could post it.
Thanks,
Mark
Hello there,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this link - but unfortunately it seems to be down? Does anybody here at fibermania.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?
Thanks,
Mark
Hey,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this link - but unfortunately it seems to be down? Does anybody here at fibermania.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?
Thanks,
Charlie