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| From QuiltCon |
Here is the story behind it, since most people don't know what to think when they see it.
Penny Gold was making her first bed sized quilt for her son Jeremy. He was heading off to college in August 2004 and had chosen a log cabin pattern for his dorm room. That July he was killed in a car crash.
She felt an outpouring of love and concern from people for a while, but eventually their lives went back to normal. Hers never did. She wanted to find some way to let people know she was the still a mother who had lost her child.
Hence the quilt. You can read her story in several places, Penny Gold is one. She finished her son's log cabin quilt eventually, with a distortion in it where she had only three blocks to go when he died. And she continued creating similar quilts and scheduled a show titled "Loss" that hung in 2016 in IL.
Interestingly, the discussion about the quilt at QuiltCon was whether it was actually a quilt or an art piece. The letters are made of an unconventional material, not a quilting material, and it is fused on rather than stitched on. Penny herself was surprised it was juried into the show.
She decided to send it because in 2013 the QuiltCon Jury Committee had accepted a quilt that read "Fuck Cancer".
I can only imagine what the next QuiltCon has in store for us! Registration is currently ongoing.
Want to come with me Patty?
I lost one age 21 in a car wreck to
ReplyDeleteIt is sad how quickly we forget another's pain in the years following the death of their loved one.
ReplyDeleteI felt total sadness when I saw this quilt on your last post....I didn't see it as a modern quilt...but as a a tribute to her son and to acknowledge and share with others her pain, I applaud her. Her story is such a sad one and it happens so quickly. Thanks for sharing the story behind this quilt.
ReplyDeleteThank for the story. Who cares if it's an art quilt- modern quilt whatever. If it helped this poor woman to get through this horrible loss then that's all that matters.
ReplyDeleteI didn't give much thought to the genre' of the quilt. I DID think about the pain the quilter felt as she designed and stitched it. Thanks for telling the background story. It's a sad story and I hope the quilter got some relief by stitching it.
ReplyDeletexx, Carol
Where is the next QuiltCon?
ReplyDeleteOmigosh - are you going to Nashville? Nancy S. and I are going to meet up there since it is only a few hours from where I live. Maybe we can both meet you, too!
ReplyDeleteAnd I totally agree with Ann -- our society is not good at grief.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that came from this quilt is that it's a reminder that the mothers (the family) can't forget and can't get back to life as they knew it. But the rest of us can help them to grieve by remembering their loss and acknowledging it by saying the name of the person. Too often we don't know what to say or how to say it, so we say nothing. This quilt is one of several art pieces that I've seen recently that shed a light on the issue of how we can handle our own grief and help others to grieve.
ReplyDeleteI'm planning Nashville, too. It's going to be my 59th birthday gift...someone just needs to tell my husband! Don't they have a bloggers' meeting place or something of that nature?