Pandemic Porch Quilt Show, Days 46-50: Sunbonnet Sue, Carlson Fish, Hashtags and Sophisticated Squares

 Porch Quilt Show, Day 46  "Sunbonnet Sue Says, 'Me Too'".

I've always enjoyed looking at other peoples' Sunbonnet Sue quilts, yet I was never tempted to make my own - the motif, which dates back to the 1800s, is too sweet for my style. 

Then, the #MeToo movement came along, I was astounded to learn that virtually all my female friends and acquaintances had been molested - many experiencing far worse than I did.

But what about our mothers? And then....what about the women who stitched all the vintage quilts and embroideries in my  collection?

I created the Sue figures from vintage fabric. I appliqued them onto a set of pre-embroidered antimacassars (small linens designed to protect furniture from hair pomade!)

The background is a white pillowcase, and along the bottom of the pillowcase are strangely crocheted female figures, with distorted bodies. 

More photos and info about this quilt is in the blog post here. 

Day 47 "Hashtag Strips," or, "After the Bleed." In 2016, I made a series of hashtag quilts. In the quilt below, batik scraps form a light hashtag in the center; the borders are scraps of fabric with text on it. 

After construction, there was a dye-bleeding accident - from which I learned a lot. Everything I learned about fixing a dye bleed is here.  

Day 48. Three Carlson Fish

I made this quilt in 2011, using the sketches in Susan Carlson's book, "Free-style Quilts." Carlson is one of the quilt world's most influential artists - her animal collage quilts, books and classes launched an entire subgenre, collaging print fabrics in surprising and delightful ways to create the texture of animal fur, scales, skin, eyes, etc. At every major quilt show I've visited for the last couple of years, there've been a bunch of quilts crediting a Carlson class for the technique. Her most astonishing piece, a 20-foot crocodile, is not to be missed. Find it here. 

Day 49 "Dresden Fans"

Here's a small Dresden Plate quilt made so long ago that I don't remember much about it. It is entirely hand-quilted - where did I find time? - and the hexagon borders are "cheater" cloth, not pieced. Most wedges are reproduction 1930s fabric, but I blithely added some wildly different wedge colors - like the orange one below.

Day 50 "Sophisticated Squares, I and II"

This is from a series of quilts made during a prolonged game of solitaire - cut a stack of squares in all colors and values, then lay them out, running up and down and all around the color and value scale. Each quilt is 30" - 40" high, so I put out two at a time. On the far left, I went wild with triangles in the borders, while in the right-hand quilt, I used restrained preppy stripes in the borders.  It's so relaxing to play with color this way, and not worry about complicated piecing!

Working with solids, and gradually changing value, makes the colors glow.

Doodling in the squares was also a lot of fun! 

More to come!