February 4, 2008

Chicago IQA Acceptance



More good mail today--my "White Mulberry" has been accepted into the International Quilt Festival/Chicago, as part of the exhibit "Celebrate Spring". This is the first time out to a juried show for this quilt, after being part of my "River Visions" exhibit at PNQE in Harrisburg last fall. I am very pleased and honored!

Like a lot of my work, I was compelled to make this one not because of any grand plan or career goals, but because I found a sapling growing wild by the side of the road and was gobsmacked by the look of it. I get so enthused about leaves--these are not huge, but there are three differently shaped ones growing simultaneously, which strikes me as incredible. It's a small tree, an Asian native used to feed silkworms and originally imported with the hopes of establishing a silk industry in this country. It escaped from cultivation and is widely spread about because birds love the berries. Now that I've identified it, I notice it everywhere in neglected and weedy places.


The center is a heliographic print on cotton, and the borders are pieced from silks and cottons. The outer border is an Indian handwoven cotton from Handloom Batik. On its own it was an interesting but unremarkable fabric; when I added it to this top-in-progress it really made the whole thing sing. (I have no connection with Handloom Batik except as a happy customer--Usha stocks beautiful and unusual fabrics and is a lovely woman to talk with.)

Here's a detail from "White Mulberry":



2 comments:

pcoxdesign said...

Beautiful! Congratulations!

Nikki said...

Beautiful. I love the detail in the quilting.