Pandemic Porch Quilt Show, Days 40-45: Blue Jeans, Scraps, Swimming Pools, Presidents, Chairs

Day #40 Old Jeans

This quilt is titled, "Ce sont des vieux jeans," which means, "These are old jeans," a nod to Magritte's famous not-a-pipe painting.

The title, in cursive, is in the middle of the quilt.

I love working with denim - the blues and whites are so soothing - an oceanic calm interrupted only by the occasional explosion of a sewing machine needle, sending deadly metallic shards flying past my eyeballs, when I make the mistake of attacking a preexisting jeans seam without protection, because I was too lazy to stand up and search for my Jean-a-ma-jig. (They're small, cheap, and easy to lose. No financial affiliation.) 

The curved horizontal pieces are improvisationally rotary cut and stitched. Many more photos of this quilt, and a tutorial on cutting and sewing improv curves, are in my blog post about this quilt, HERE. 

Day #41 Election Day

For election day -  a stressful day indeed - I hung my husband's American flag, which he acquired in Boy Scouts, offered up with a prayer for sanity and common sense. 

Day #42 Scrap Heaven, or Gerrymandered. 2013, 40" x 85".

This quilt is the result of a serendipity scrap game. The primary rule: Scraps should arrive on the quilt and be loved just the way they are, without being cut into new shapes. More photos and my tutorial for playing this game is here.

Day #43 Swimming Pools 

About a decade ago, a young German designer named Benedikt Gross, flying into LA, was fascinated by the glittering pools below. He partnered with MIT data scientist Joseph Lee, to map 43,000 local pools (and hot tubs); they analyzed the data and wound up with a 6,000 page report and a voyeuristic back alley Google rover tour of the pools.

An entertaining article about their work appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 2013, at the same exact moment that I had just finished a couple of small pool-themed wallhangings, and wanted to make something bigger. With Gross’ findings in mind, out came this quilt.

The raised effect of the “patio” area area was achieved with Décor Bond interfacing. More details, and a step-by-step tutorial for making your own swimming pool quilt, is on my blog, here.

Day #44. Presidents Speak

My Dad was a historian and community leader. In 2005, his 80th birthday was approaching. The Internet was still newish then – but despite Dad’s age, he had mastered it well enough for flourishing email correspondences. He and his friends discussed history, politics and religion - and traded corny and/or appalling jokes (most of which Dad forwarded to me, except the dirty ones!)

For his 80th , I thought about making him a "post office" quilt - sending his friends and family, pieces of fabric and asking for their return with signatures and decoration. But that didn't seem right or feasible for his crowd.

The solution struck me in a flash: Use the Force, i.e. the Internet! Collecting wise and wise-guy words from Dad's buddies could conceivably take minutes instead of months! It helped that I had complete access to his email list (because he hadn't figured out 'BCC' yet.)

So I did a mass e-mailing. I explained that I owned presidential fabric, featuring heads of most US presidents. I asked people to write a short birthday message; and, as an option, they could pick a U.S. president; and I would literally put their words into that president's mouth!

When the messages flooded in - within minutes, hours, and days, for the most part, I was blown away! See the messages closeup and read more about this quilt on my blog, here.

Day #45. Chair of Chairs

This chair-shaped quilt was partially inspired by chairs spotted on a European vacation; and some are pure fantasy. I am especially fond of the little fried egg chair. (Below, center). 

To the left of the egg chair, there's a chair inspired by a real one cut out of glacial ice in the French Alps. Above the egg, a hand-shaped chair. Below, the top right chair is, of course, inspired by sewing machines, and next to it there's a thunder and lightening chair. More details of this quilt are blogged here.