Rise and Shine, Inner City has come home! I shipped the
quilt to SouthArts in November 2012 for its trip to six venues in China with
the exhibit "The Sum of Many Parts--25 Quiltmakers in 21st Century
America." It was my privilege to attend the opening of the exhibit in Dalian, China
in 2013. At the end of this two-year odyssey, Mid-America Arts Alliance picked
up a dozen of the pieces for a US tour entitled "The Sum of Many
Parts--Quiltmakers in Contemporary America," which traveled to Oregon,
Arkansas, Nebraska, South Carolina, Missouri, and Florida. Now after almost four years, the quilt arrived back in Hattiesburg.
I love that so many
people got to enjoy this quilt and think about its story. There have been many
inner city quilts made with a variety of color plans and arrangements--my favorite, and the one which first inspired me--is by Jinny Beyer. She cleverly caused the viewer to see hexagons in a beehive pattern.
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| by Jinny Beyer |
After taking a scrap quilting class from Jinny in the early 90s, I began my quilt, using colors grouped as "neighborhoods" meeting and touching one
another with the sun coming in to wake up the city. It is vital that
neighborhoods work together to make up a successful and healthy city, just as
it is for countries to work together to make a peaceful world. I hope my Rise
and Shine, Inner City has helped to spread this message to the people who
viewed it on its travels.
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| Large poster advertising exhibit at Dalian Modern Museum |
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| In Dalian |
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| At Crealdé School of Art, Winter Park, FL |
Now the quilt is back at home in Mississippi; I will enjoy seeing it on my guest bed as it rests from its exciting adventures. Lucy Fazely helped me write a pattern for my version of this traditional Inner City block.
3 comments:
Wow incredibly beautiful; congratulations on the journey of this piece!
You mentioned that there is a pattern for the Inner City quilt. Is this still available? Was it in a book?
Yes, my pattern is still available; it comes with a half-hexagon acrylic template to make cutting pieces much easier. Email me with your name, address, etc. for more information. My address is [myname]@bellsouth.net. Of course fill in my name.
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