All Colours are of GOD

A quick update on this piece: It did not win, place OR show in the Artisancrafts recycled inspiration contest (boo hoo, so sad. Ok, I'm over it now - *sigh*) However, ACAoG did win first place at the Glendale Quilt Show Small Quilt Competition. It also won the 'Reach For the Stars' Quilt Competition at my own quilting guild. Now it goes in for consideration for inclusion at the IQA juried show starting in September, and will be submitted to the county fair in July as well.

Just a quick update - ACaoG won first place in the Ventura Co. Fair in 2007, and was juried into the IQA Houston Internation Quilt Festival. It has since shown at my own local quilt guild's show and has now been juried into Road to California for January 2009. I am off to the post office to ship it today (12/27/08). Has to be in by 1/2/09 -wish me luck!

Most of what follows was subtext for the Artisancrafts contest and not relevant for general viewing unless you have a lot of time on your hands and nothing better to do.

So much going on here... not sure where to start... Done as a single piece for submission to several different competitions (only one in DA tho). Entire quilt measures 19.5"x19.5"

Submitted to deviantart for inclusion in the Artisancrafts Recycled Inspiration contest.

The Recycling: Most of the fabrics in this piece came from my scrap bin - little bits of this and that left over from previous quilting projects. Most of them I thought were really too small to save, I never expected to make anything this complex at this size (entire piece is 19.5"x19.5"), but now I'm glad I saved them. And the batting is a leftover bit from a larger bed quilt I made a year or so ago.

The Inspiration(s): 'Walking in Space' from the musical 'Hair' by Ragni and Rado, (lyrics at: Walking in Space).
A comment from a viewer called it a hippy, trippy mandala thing' or something to that effect.. which brought to mind that subconsciously, I think I was also in mind of Peter, Paul & Mary's "The Great Mandela', another song I used to listen to incessantly, back in the day... (lyrics at: The Great Mandela).

Part of the requirements of the contest are to explain why this artist is such an inspiration... Being a child of the 60's, I've always loved Hair, and even more than the stage production, I really love the movie. That production perhaps captured the spirit of the times more as we'd like to remember them, than necessarily quite as they really were. The music of the entire production is stunning - as is the choreography of Twyla Tharp. The imagery that accompanied this song in particular in the movie always sent shivers up my spine, and the lyrics always gave me the mental image of a kaleidoscopic rainbow in space.. and so emerged this quilt.

(excerpts from) Walking in Space
(by James Rado and Gerome Ragni)
(complete lyrics at: Walking in Space)

My body
Is walking in space
My soul is in orbit
With God face to face

Floating, flipping
Flying, tripping

On a rocket to
The Fourth Dimension
Total self awareness
The intention

My mind is as clear as country air
I feel my flesh, all colors mesh

Walking in space
We find the purpose of peace
The beauty of life
You can no longer hide

(excerpt from) The Great Mandela
(by Peter Yarrow)
(complete lyrics at: The Great Mandela)

Take your place on the great Mandela
As it moves through your brief moment of time
Win or lose now, you must choose now
And if you lose, you're only losing your life...



Also made for a local quilt show's Small Quilt competition in March and my local guild's 'Reach for the Stars' small quilt challenge in May.

The constellations in the outer black areas are Leo (mine and my dad's sign), Aquarius (my mother's sign), Sagittarius (my son's sign), and Draco (because I was born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon, and also because visible within Draco is the Cat's Eye Nebula - it's there in the quilt - just hard to see) - and everything I do has to have a cat in it SOMEwhere). The only reason my husband's sign isn't in here too is because he's an Aries, and anyone who's studied the night sky knows, Aries as a constellation is just, well, boring... 3 stars in a straight line... blah.

Based on an original quilt pattern by Jacqueline de Jonge, "Circle of Life" (designed to be 65"x65", I miniaturized it to a mere 19.5"x19.5"). Other details changed as well, and I also changed the internal lone star to a spiral lone star, because nothing to me signifies floating in space more than the shape of a spiral galaxy...