Emily received an extraordinary quilt from her grandmother on her 9th birthday yesterday. Mom is a gifted fabric artist, and her creations never fail to amaze. Her incredible work has been well received at national juried quilt exhibitions, such as last year's Lowell Quilt Festival where her "Praise for the Morning" took third place in the small, non traditional category.
She is also exceptionally generous about passing her quilts along to those family members and close friends who would take the most delight in them.
Mom usually works from patterns of her own design and ideas that she has developed in her mind's eye. This is a small quilt which she completely as part of a master class taught by Christine Fries-Ureel, who made the pattern and showed Mom how to make the swirling fabric of the dress and stitch the windswept hair. The quilt is called "Miranda", and is based on a Pre-Raphaelite painting by John William Waterhouse of Shakespeare's Tempest. The sea foam is made from strands of sheep's wool, and the dress has unusual depth and three-dimensionality.
Mom excels at making "picture quilts, and as she was acquiring new skills in this class she had in mind her grand-daughter and her love of theater, faeries and myths. "Miranda" has a proud place in a shaded corner of Emily's room, paired on the adjoining wall with the gorgeous, traditional mariner's star quilt her Gramma gave her on the year of her birth. Boundless love radiates from every careful stitch and splash of color.
Wonderful work!
Posted by: Miranda | January 13, 2010 at 03:17 PM
That is wonderful, a great representation in fabric from the beautiful painting by Waterhouse. I would love to see it firsthand.
Posted by: Miranda | January 13, 2010 at 03:16 PM
wow wow wow!
Posted by: theo | August 30, 2009 at 10:13 PM
A true work of art and an inspiration. Thank you for sharing it.
Posted by: StreamingGourmet (Amy Wilson) | August 30, 2009 at 01:40 AM