Can you tell a life story in fabric? I think so. From my baby quilt to the quilt sitting on my lap right now, I have been wrapped up with these physical manifestations of love and comfort. We don’t use store-bought blankets in my house, we use all manner of quilts created by my Mom. 

Recently, I started talking to my Mom about making me a new quilt for my favorite comfy chair in the studio. My colors have changed, I want something in vibrant blues and greens. Maybe some batik fabric. We talked about patterns and colors and on her recommendation, I started to Google and search Pinterest for Bargello quilt patterns. Oh my, these are amazing! They appeal to my love of geometric patterns and beautiful color. (Check these out if you’ve never seen them before.)

After getting lost in the color and patterns of these quilts for a couple of days, I started to wonder… Could I do something similar with a photograph?

Why yes! Yes I can.

Using some of my favorite iPhone apps I came up with this one fairly quickly. It’s not exactly the same as a Bargello, but it’s related in the way the color and imagery is cut up and then pieced back together… Just like a quilt. 

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been playing with more photographs, seeing what works and what doesn’t. Just like any new direction in art, it takes a lot of trial and error to figure things out. There are a lot of throwaway images I will likely never show.

But the ones that do work… Wow. I love them. They make me happy. They connect to me to my history more deeply than my other artistic work. 

Quilting goes back generations in my family. Maybe this is my way to carry the tradition forward. If nothing else, it’s brought a new inspiration to my art that I’ve desperately needed. Let’s see what happens from here.