Art Quilt: Would He Hide Me

The theme of "haven" inspired this art quilt. Based on fears inherited from his mother and grandfather who had fled pogroms in Russia for haven in America, a man I knew would measure a person as a friend or confidante, a person of trust, by this single question, "Would he hide me?" One hundred years after those ancestors arrived, America is still seen as a place of refuge by persecuted immigrants. In recent times, however, it has sadly proven less hospitable, even to those already here. 

I cut a large stencil of a man, applied it with textile paint to cotton, and cut it into strips. The words I stenciled with commercially made letters and deColourant, which selectively takes the dye out of the cloth.

Would He Hide Me

30.5" x 44.5" (78 cm x 113 cm)

Hand dyed cotton and velvet; woven taupe cloth; stencils: fabric paint, deColourant; inkjet transfer; hand and machine quilted

Detail

Taupe cloth from kimonomomo, cotton velveteen to dye from Dharma, basic Kona cottons from Bay Quilts. As an iron-on transfer, I included a copy of an old map of North America from the Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration by J.G. Heck, originally published in 1851, my copy from 1979. Here is an Amazon link: The Complete Encyclopedia of Illustration: A Collection of beautiful engravings, copyright-free and clearly reproducible on every subject from architecture & military science to history and mythology. It is an amazing resource. 

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More about deColourant in this post from October, 2019.

A little more about iron-on transfers in this post from March, 2020.

More about inkjet printing techniques on cloth in this post from August 2011, and in this 2011 post, also.

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Addendum, 8.14.23: Accepted into the de Young Open 2023; September 30, 2023 - January 7, 2024