As many of you know, awhile back I was commissioned to make a quilt for Wendy Golden-Levitt, a Jungian therapist in Canada who uses cloth in her work with children.
Wendy sent the fiber artists whose work she employs a beautiful book as a thank you. It is filled with the most moving testimony from the children, including wonderfully wise and curious speculations about the cloth makers.
Here are just a few gems:
“I am getting better working with the cloths. I can feel the people who made them. I think they understand what it is like to wait…”
“You step towards it [the cloth] and it whispers something. By the time you are holding it, you got a real relationship going. You can trust it completely.”
“Were they sad or stitching themselves into serious happiness? Do they have days when they are not feeling good in the heart? Do they listen to their dogs or cats? Do they eat waffles while they are sewing?”
I was so moved to see a young woman using “my” quilt as a prayer rug.
(and, by the way, check out how completely color-coordinate she is with the quilt — right down to her fingernails!!)
I blogged about genesis of the idea of a “Treasure Island” theme here and about it being in progress here, but apparently never blogged about its completion. So here are some pix.
Fabric depicting a treasure map got me going with the idea of healing being like a sailor looking for gold. I wanted there to be lots of animals in the cloth, too — both as guides to the children, and as characters in whatever stories they were busy telling. I bound it with ‘baby-blanket satin’ to make it as touchable and inviting as possible.
Receiving the book was so moving, that it inspired me to send another piece — that Crow I’d been working on. I’ve heard from Wendy and the Crow has landed!!
I took a gazillion pictures of The Crow for some reason, so I plan to dedicate a post to it. But for now let me say that once I knew I was sending it to Wendy, I mounted it on velvet and added satin binding to the lower section… soft textures that will be inviting to the touch!
beautiful Crow cloth and love seeing the Treasure Island, Wendy & those kids are such an inspiration!
truly, truly are!
Amazing work, Dee. I love the imagery, the light and dark, I can see with my untrained eye that it could be a marvelous tool to explore and deepen with. Your crow piece I recognize but look forward to the full post — crows are very dear to me, too. xoxo
thanks, Peggy… I think part of the effectiveness of textiles is how touchable they are… maybe all the symbols are just extra… course they hold the energy of the crafter, too.
oh, how beautiful! the whole story, the whole cloth, the whole truth of it.
Hi Maggie, thanks. One of the funny parts about this quilt was in MY mind it was always, “Treasure Island Quilt for a Boy” (for the obvious reason, I suppose, of having two sons and having made them many blankets, thinking about their growth, etc.). So it was interesting to see that a young woman was drawn to it.
wonderful, wonderful, Wonder Full!
hey, Cindy. Thanks!!
What a wonderful place for your quilt and Crow to go and be appreciated! <3
thanks, Heather… in the book, there were so many animal cloths, I wanted to send one.
How sweet it is to be working for those children. Soon Jude’s fantastic feather creation will be on it’s way too and I was fortunate to be just a tiny part but got a book a, as well–and wept at what the children say. Blogged about it a while ago https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3365260245927126723#editor/target=post;postID=1146881561386974134;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=0;src=postname
I sent Jude a feather for that unbelievable quilt, too… I liked the idea of the Crow flying out, and then sometime after, the feather quilter (“Home”?) arriving….
Beautiful cloth, beautiful idea.
oh wow Dee, such a moving post, I hardly know what to say as it all seems kind of trite (like how much I love the crow piece and the treasure island quilt) there I said it
thanks Saski and Debbie — short and simple comments are just as welcome as long and complicated!!!