2021 President’s Challenge: Song of Importance
2021 President's Challenge Guidelines:
Completed, modern, quilted item with the smallest side being 18"
Inspired by a song that is of importance to you. It can be a favorite song, a song that always bring back a certain memory, a motivational song, your go-to exercise song, the song you blast in the car
You can use an established design/pattern, but it should be used in such a way that the finished item is an interpretation/inspired by the song of your choosing
Be as literal or abstract as you want, using techniques and fabrics of your choice
These are five of the songs that go with the quilts prepared for the reveal at the October monthly meeting.
Penny Ray
Song: “The Git Up” by Blanco Brown, Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs
Ray Family Christmas Extravaganza 2019 was the last time our family was all together. I picked this song because all of our videos from that week have this song playing in the background. I wanted to show 23 people dancing and singing but I couldn’t figure out how to do it so I went with highlights of the week. The homemade gift exchange was aprons and hats. The sweater represents the many sweaters we saw that week. The puzzles are for the ongoing games/puzzles. We all went roller skating at a rink out in the country. One of the little towns we had to drive through had a tree decorated with beer cans in the town center. Had to stop and take a picture of the tree and embarrass the grandkids. The ostrich was a $10 gag gift from many years ago and he is now our family mascot. He runs in place and plays music (not Christmas music) when a button is pushed (which happens often because it is so annoying.) Love and miss my family.
Julie Doy
Song: “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd, The Wall
This original design is based on our guild’s President’s challenge: make a quilt inspired by a song. I chose ‘Comfortably Numb’ by Pink Floyd, stretched a drunkard’s path block into an oval and used fabric from indigenous people of Australia. My son suggested using the gray to make the blocks appear staggered and it reminds me of the chord changes in the song.
My brother passed away in 2013 and our mutual love of Pink Floyd made this a meaningful project. I will never be comfortable with our family’s loss, hence the quilt’s name. The maelstrom of the last few years also influenced the dark nature of the quilt. The Aboriginal fabric is chaotic and the quilting all but disappears in the print but is stable, symmetrical and consistent in all the blocks, much like my underlying values and family support have kept me sane throughout our recent history.
Stephanie Bracelin
Song: “Smilin’” by Cricket, The Calling
Inspired by the river and the birds in the song Smilin’ by Cricket. I created my own templates for this quilt and used a transparent affect when the birds and river crossed paths.
Eva Marie Evans
Song: “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake, Comfort Eagle
My favorite song and ring tone for at least a dozen years, Short skirt/long jacket by Cake has a great instrumental opening. The song itself talks about the singer’s ideal woman, while he says she wears a short skirt and a long jacket, most of the song talks about her intellectual capabilities. I thought this would be any interesting opportunity to show women of all colors and proportions as the perfect woman, because in the end the singer is really looking for interior qualities not exterior. We are all ideal just as we are. The Heather Ross surfer girl print gives the illusion of depth and reminds me of San Diego, where I was living when I first heard this song. The quilting is wavy matchstick in a variegated aqua thread.
Ben Millett
Song: “Mescaline” by Abel Korzeniowski, A Single Man: Original Motion Picture
I chose the track “Mescaline” from the soundtrack to the movie A Single Man. I put it on when I need to decompress from anything that’s weighing me down. I was struck by the gradual build up of the notes within the song. I wanted to play with the idea of water flowing down, growing in size as it moves “downstream”. This starts with the piecing, with each color grouping increasing in width as the color becomes more saturated. The saturation changes are a nod to the film, which plays with saturation, adjusting it as the emotions shown on-screen change in intensity. I left the fourth color of each set as background white, harkening back to the rests in the music. The rests are just as critical as the notes for the music, so they are pieced and quilted just like the other three colors.
