After nearly a year of false starts and missed connections, Postcard from Rajasthan has finally been delivered to the man whose photography inspired the quilt,
Henry Dallal. I wrote this to accompany the wallhanging:
Captivated by the craggy-faced man and beautiful Mawari horse, I was inspired by Henry Dallal's photo to create this 45 x 60 inch wall hanging. I worked on this piece for about a year. The photo was enlarged to create a pattern, from which various commercial fabrics were cut and assembled on a muslin base. Intensive thread painting defined features and provided dimensionality.
In a nod to traditional quilting, I pieced the sky from half-square triangles in a close range of blues. The beaded fringe was created over many July evenings, while watching the Red Sox on TV with my father-in-law. The ornate frame, quilted in hexagons with gold thread, harkens back to Persian hand crafted woodwork known as Khatam-Kari.
Completed in 2007, the quilt was exhibited at several venues including: Maine Quilts: Augusta, Maine (Judges' Choice)
Northeast Quilts Unlimited, Arts Center Old Forge, New York
Road to California: Ontario, California (Honorable Mention)
Art Quilts Maine Exhibit, Saco Museum: Saco, Maine
World Quilt Show-New England: Manchester, New Hampshire
While I derived a great deal of pleasure creating and exhibiting this piece, I always knew it would ultimately be a present to my dear friend and inspiration, Henry.
Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts
After nearly a year of false starts and missed connections, Postcard from Rajasthan has finally been delivered to the man whose photography inspired the quilt, Henry Dallal. I wrote this to accompany the wallhanging:
Here are the first photos of my latest work in progress. Another photograph-based quilt--this photo taken by my friend An
dy Waterhouse when we were in DC. When I saw his photo I knew I wanted to interpret it in fabric--it would be a challenge to get the light and the wine glasses to work out. First though, the faces. If they didn't work, may as well abandon the idea. So that's what I have been playing with--tracing, sketching, familiarizing myself with 
the subjects, then cutting and layering fabric shapes in various shades. I am pretty pleased with the result so far. Still so many ways this could get derailed, but a good enough start to post some photos. Enjoy!
Has it been over a month since my last post? Guess that's what happens when the weather improves here in Maine--can't spend those sunny weekends indoors! Garden is growing, home projects started. Haven't made much progress on my new quilt--it is ready for me to pull fabrics, but I have procrastinated, waiting for a day with a block of undisturbed time to work. In the meanwhile, we presented the Wedding Tree to our co-worker and put together a baby quilt. Everyone made blocks using lots of bright scraps--either flowers or pieced squares, then we got together to sew blocks into a top and add borders. I brought it home and quilted it (see pictures.) Now it goes back to someone else to bind, another person is working on a label, and with luck we can present it before the baby arrives!
