Bee's Hive

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Art Quilts and the story behind them

I have always had a huge imagination. I think it helped me to get through my childhood when things got bad. I would just go into a closet and find a place that made me happy.

I think this is why art quilts interest me. Behind each one is a story. I often wish the quilter would include her story with the quilt. I saw an oil painting of Leda from Greek Mythology. I had no idea what I was looking at but I knew I wanted to put her in a quilt.

Maybe that is when I realized that art quilts had a story. As I formed her face I felt I needed to know more about her and set out to the internet to read her story. That led to the purchase of 9 books on Greek Mythology!

This brings me to the Quilt in the bag swap. When I signed up I had a feeling I wanted to do an art quilt since it would be small. Then my partner sent me 21 hand dyed pieces of fabric and off went my imagination to a magic land! I will soon have my first block to share with you. At first I thought this would be a whole cloth crazy quilt but it has become a 4 block quilt with lots of embellishments and thread art.

The story starts with the castle of all castles, the one that lives in the hearts of all little and big girls. The castle where maidens are saved by princes, where they dance and leave behind a shoe, those who fall to sleep and wake with a kiss or have a bad sleep because of a pea under the mattress. My castle is cared for by 3 Fairy's, Latanya, Tiania & Shaylee. It is protected by 3 mermaids, Isme, Shene and the Queen maid, Oceandia.

Leda & the Swan...........and the Castle, my inspiration

2 comments:

Tom H said...

Boy, oh boy; you sure know how to make me return to your blog....talk about a cliff hanger..Thanks for being inspirational, and sharing..

Donna said...

The castle is such a mystical place. What a wonderful post, I'm sure your quilt will be magnificent. I haven't received my bag of fabrics from my partner nor has she made mention of sending them :( . I hope to hear something soon. I mailed mine out to her weeks ago.