I’m participating again in Seam Collective’s September Textile Love challenge. Today’s prompt is “Spinning a yarn” for which I have responded with photos and details about this quilt, “Blue Rhino Moon.” This is a story—or “yarn”—that is worth re-telling.
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| “Blue Rhino Moon” 2014 Guild Challenge |
Textiles have stories
I believe all textiles have a story to tell. (Oh, if some could actually speak!) When I look at the quilts I’ve made over the years, I think the stories behind the ones I remember most are the Guild Challenges I’ve participated in. This quilt, “Blue Rhino Moon,” is a Guild Challenge piece that often accompanies me when I bring samples of my work to my workshops, like my Intro to Free-motion Quilting or Intro to Improv Quilting. This is when I get to re-live and re-tell the story behind the quilts.
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| “Blue Rhino Moon” detail. |
“Blue Rhino Moon” was made in response to my guild’s “Paint Chip Challenge” in which participants had to find three paint chips whose color names began with the our initials, use fabrics in these colors as the predominant colors of the quilt, and include some type of hand embellishment. My colors were Volcanic Ash (grey), Hang Ten (turquoise), and Oh So Red—VHO. I love the vibrancy of the complementary color palette, and the contrast with the black and volcanic ash fabrics. The quilt is improvisationally pieced and free-motion quilted on my domestic machine. The hand embellishments are tiny crocheted and tatted motifs.
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| Back detail of free-motion machine quilting. |
Here are detail photos of the machine quilting from the back of the quilt.
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| Back detail of free-motion machine quilting. |
The message is: Label your quilts!
I so appreciate when one of the requirements of a Guild Challenge is that a label be attached to the quilt. Labels are one of the best ways to document a quilt, its maker, and its story. Yes, it takes a little extra time and effort when we are running up to the last minute of that Challenge deadline… but we have too many quilts by “makers unknown.” Don’t add your beautiful quilt to that list.
The title for this quilt came from a fabric scrap that was amidst the fabrics I pulled while making the quilt. This fabric scrap (with the rhino) incorporated the colors of the quilt so I used it and other trimmings from the patchwork to create the quilt label.
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| “Blue Rhino Moon” quilt label. |
In the astronomy of ancient cultures, from where other full moons get their names— like the Strawberry Moon, or the Harvest Moon—I don’t think there is such a thing as the Blue Rhino Moon. But for the story of this quilt, the Blue Rhino Moon does exist.
And this story also includes a reminder to document your quilt by including a label!
