the ugly quilt sleeping bag project

I took this project to be an ideal way to give to those in need. Twenty years and running- over 5000 ugly quilts made by thousands of people volunteering their time, materials, and skill to produce a sleeping bag for the homeless.

The written and illustrated materials at the link http://www.uglyquilts.org/ gave me a great appreciation for those who spearhead the effort and for the thinking behind it.

Take a look- make one if you can.

making pretty for the camera

Vision, 2004, 89 x 93in.



I like the way my work looks reproduced in its image format. In fact- while using a reducing lens to do the free-hand, improvisational piecing that I do- the reproduced image almost seems to drive the process. Not that I would admit to an impressionist style where-in some gesture stands for something real. I prefer the term "passage"- as in "this pieced passage (like a block you know) seems to say something to me."

It is a "midden" sort of approach. The cast off pieces of textiles coming together- scrap quilt is weighed down with too much baggage as is "charm quilt" - not that that is what I'm doing. My first work in the way of pictorial quilts started with blocks that each contained a certain part of the image- and as singular blocks they resembled crazy quilt blocks.

The City for Jean Lacy, 2000-2001, 90 x 56in



Look at the bottom of this quilt: The City for Jean Lacy, the blocks just above the line of coffins at the bottom that begin the section of the harbor where created like crazy quilt blocks- notice there is almost no curved piecing in the quilt as well. The quilt was started prior to Sept or 2001- it just turns out that a unique image to honor the artist Jean Lacy became a common, historic, image associated more with an event than with a location.

Again- can you avoid it- image of object, object in image- the pieces get lost I think. Too bad that the real story is in the pieces.