Therese Quilt

"The Therese Quilt" is a self portrait and was made in 1969. A photo of it appeared in Jean Ray Laury's 1970 book, QUILTS AND COVERLETS: A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH.  "Machine-appliquéd blocks, joined in a kind of ingenious jigsaw puzzle, combine certain characteristics of traditional quilts with a contemporary approach........ The pattern of hexagonal shapes is so reminiscent of old quilts that it is a delightful jolt to have the faces emerge from the pattern." Jean Ray Laury A more personal note about this book: It was exciting and surprizing to have something published in a book such as this one. I had no idea of the value of my work, really. Also, my mother loved the whole thing and she carried a copy of this book in her purse to show to anyone who would look! Bets Ramsey wrote about the "Therese Quilt" in Art and Quilts: 1950-1970 which was included in UNCOVERINGS 1993: "In 1969, at the recommendation of a fellow craftsman, for the first time she entered a quilt, Animals, Quilts, and Blunt Instruments, in a competitive show in Walnut Creek, California. It received a hundred-dollar award! Because of her family she had put aside the idea of having a career in art and had never thought of her quilts as art works. The prize caused an awakening. She realized that it was possible to have an art career with needle, fabric, and thread, not canvas and paint." This quilt also appears in a 1998 book An Invitation to Quilt by Bets Ramsey, published in Japanese. In Robert Shaw's 1997 book, THE ART QUILT, it appears in the chapter entitled, "A History of the Art Quilt" It appears on the cover of PSYCHOLOGY: MIND, BRAIN, & CULTURE, 1999. Now, in 1999 "Therese Quilt" has been named as one of the 20th Century's 100 Best American Quilts. It was chosen by a panel of experts from the Alliance for American Quilts, the American Quilt Study Group, the International Quilt Association, and the National Quilting Association. It was exhibited at the 1999 Houston International Quilt Festival. The 100 best quilts are also published in the book, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S BEST AMERICAN QUILTS. A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE THERESE QUILT In 1969, I was a young wife and mother and I was enjoying staying home with my children and doing a lot of sewing. I made clothes for my kids and curtains for the windows and quilts for the beds. Actually, I really liked the idea of quilts--my husband's grandmother was still alive at that time and she had made quite a few traditional quilts, so I asked her about what to do to get started. She gave me a flanel sheet so that I would have something to put in between the quilt top and the backing. So that was about it in the way of quilt lessons. I started by sewing squares and triangles together. The fabric I used was from old clothes--things that held some significance in my life and the lives of my loved ones. This was in the fall of 1965 and I made many simple patchwork quilts, almost all of which I gave away to family and friends. In late 1967 I began making pictures with cloth, ie, experimenting with drawings translated into fabric. Then I thought of the silk screen prints of Andy Warhol--the repeated portraits of various movie stars--I thought that this was a good idea for a quilt. I also was into nostalgia--after all it was the 60's. I liked really old fabric, and that it reminded me of my grandmother and her house. So for the "Therese quilt" I used all old fabric because I wanted it to look like a really old quilt--not only from the past, but actually used and tattered and torn and faded. I liked how the fabrics took my mind back to earlier days and the comforting feelings of grandmother. Actually, tho--it was my first time doing appliqué, and I did not know that it would probably help to do a little straight stitch around each piece to anchor them down before doing the satin stitch. I bought most of the fabric at Goodwill and other thrift stores--old clothes, etc., and cut them up. I used anything and everything back in those days; I rarely bought new fabric. I had no idea that this quilt would ever be seen in public. And I had no idea that there was any such thing as an "art quilt" I was just having fun with fabric. I did have some sort of psychological ideas which prompted the making of this quilt, and these kinds of ideas have always been very important to me, because my artwork, whether for private enjoyment or for public display is inspired by very intuitive, inward discoveries. Perhaps making a picture was a way of communicating something which could not be put into words. While looking at my quilt in the context of the 100 best quilts of the 20th century, I was a bit apprehensive, especially when I overheard some of the comments of people wondering why this quilt was included. I heard a woman saying that she just did not get it. It was like a deja vu, really, to the first time it was exhibited in 1969 and I heard some ladies making comments about the workmanship--obviously they had never seen anything like it. I think my message for today is that, whatever it is we feel we want to do in art--simply begin, and let it lead you to the next step--this is what I did with quilts. I did not know how to make a quilt--all I knew was that I had something to say that could not be put into words; I knew that I wanted to make quilts--I was much too shy to go out and get quilting lessons, and it never occurred to me to do that, (except to ask my husband's grandmother about it) I just figured that I could do what ever I wanted to do, because, after all I had a sewing machine, fabric, thread, scissors, and lots of time. And best of all, I had the idea. "My Heart's Still Beeting" 45x40 2014 Lately my art is more and more an expression of what I feel about something. When my career was first starting, I just loved making art. Now, after 50 years of making art quilts, I’m sending a message that I’m still alive and that I have something more to say. The quilt image in the background of this piece is printed fabric of my face, appliquéd and repeated 80 times on a quilt that I made in 1969. The original Therese Quilt still gets recognized in books and magazines as a creation that a pioneer (me) of art quilts made. In the current piece, "My Heart is Still Beeting" I’m communicating to the quilt world, which has grown into a huge industry since the late sixties, but also to help give a voice to the millions of quilt artists who are virtually unknown to the general art world, that I’m still alive and growing as an artist, and that they can too. I chose the beet image for its healthy connotations as well as its color and shape as a light hearted pun.