pieces of you

Much inspired by the fiber work by Faith Ringgold, Buddhist thankgas, and my friend Sally Brooking's amazing wedding quilt, Pieces of You is a story quilt started in 2013 while expecting a baby and continues to be a work in progress as our first was born and joined later by a second. With the goal of including community, family, friends, and our neighborhood into the story, I asked for words of wisdom, images, and pieces of fabric from their lives to put in the quilt.

The houses we lived in, the trees of our neighborhood, the skyline of our city are included as paper pieced blocks and appliqué elements. The streetlights light up with a soft circuit element. The fabrics donated from friends and family include their own textile stories--a beloved t-shirt, a tiny scrap of silk, a vintage piece of cotton from Aunt Marjory's first hand-dyed indigo dyeing, my first natural dye experiment (coffee-dyed cotton for the tree trunks).

On some nights, when we are trying to quiet our thoughts and move towards resting our bodies, I tell the stories of the inspiring, beautiful, wonderful people, places, and ideas of the world I have come to know in this piece. It is a reminder of who they are, where we are from, how we are all connected, and how deeply they are loved.

March 2017 Insider Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
March 2024 Storytelling Quilts, Camden Fireworks, Camden, NJ