Most of these pieces were created in 2016. I accepted a challenge issued by painter Leslie Saeta, who organized a “30 Paintings in 30 Days” on her blog. It is meant for painters, who can create quite quickly, but I decided to see if I could create an art quilt a day for 30 days myself. I was doing this in January, 2016.
The first one I did was small, entitled A Lot Goes Wrong. Subconsciously the inspiration was that I had just broken my wrist, and was trying to carry out this challenge despite the handicap. That piece was small, about 10 x 12.” After that I made them a little bigger, because most of the work was in composing, and that took about as long for a smaller piece. All are quilted quickly and simply by machine, using a free motion stitch. Other quilts that I sew by hand take a lot longer to complete.
As a theme I decided to use a collage method, cherry-picking images of neighbors’ lawn ornaments and houses along with fabrics of my choice. I created little scenes that made me laugh. Most were silly. Once I got on a roll I really had fun with it, and, by working long hours each day, actually was able to complete a quilt every day. One idea led to another organically. I really never ran out of ideas.
I would overhear a comment, such as “I really don’t know our neighbors.” And that would get my imagination rolling. What sorts of creatures lived next door? One never knows, but one can imagine.
Today, four years later, I was driving down the road, and witnessed some sort of accident scene. There was a fire truck, with a guy sitting on the front bumper, and I don’t know what other kinds of vehicles. Again I could feel my imagination churn: perhaps a gaggle of geese walked across the road, could be a helicopter was hovering — mother squirrel was out for a walk and stopped to take a look. Maybe there are more of these yet to come!