Thursday, February 28, 2013

Crazy Quilt -- Cotton African Wax Print

Here's another NYC creation. I drafted the sewing pattern from an Afghani tunic that Bina [correction: Wendy] gave me in 1971. Another garment I never felt all that comfortable wearing. Maybe it was too bold.

Haha. "Too bold." I was being a little disingenuous there.
What I DO find interesting is that I have only one patch on the quilt with both the green/yellow/cream motif and the pin dotted brown background. So even while placing patches on the quilt, there was something about the print that made me uncomfortable. File it under "nice to view, not to wear." I have a few textiles that fall into that category.

I got this fabric (along with the qiana in the previous post) at Jerry Brown's, 54 West 57th Street [closed --thank you Aline and Cindy for researching and finding this emporium from our past!]. Not sure if it is authentic African wax print or a stateside interpretation. Here's a link about wax print, a textile with an interesting provenance.

On to the original tunic -- another garment that I wore to shreds.
my senior photo from my 74 yearbook -- no formal portraits for us 70s gals!
I found my "pattern" for it when I was retrieving the quilt.
if you click on these images, you can see/print them bigger
Discoveries like this justify my pack rat tendencies, imho. That and living in a house big enough to hold lots of stuff.

Thus concludes my pages of the Crazy Quilt Dossier, 70's Edition. I'll post a video tomorrow of the entire book along with information about the Art House Sketchbook 2013 tour, which starts in Brooklyn this Friday, 3/1/13, 6-10pm.

I'm a little sad these posts are over, but never fear -- next up is my 79-82 Maps of Providence sketchbook. Maybe SpyGirl with weasel her way into that book too! It's due 5/15. I WILL start working on it SOON. I've had it with my last minute nonsense.