Art Quilt: Check All Boxes

Following my art quilt, Redacted, this next one contains some of its pieces. The catalyst was the letterpress printing from wood type on black cotton; I had a few "pages" left over and cut them into squares. But what form would they take? I thought again of boxes and the traditional pattern of tumbling blocks. The traditional pattern was slightly different, with parallelograms instead of squares. Could I do that with this? Precision is not my middle name. It was a terrific (and I use that adjective because it is close to, but just misses, "terrible") sewing challenge for me, and I learned a lot.

A few ideas converged. From proving you are not a robot ("select all boxes with traffic lights," for example) to choosing a mate ("he/she/they checked all the boxes") to searching the former president's residence – you gotta check all boxes. The printed type originally said four words: confidential, classified, secret, and sensitive.

Check All Boxes
28"w x 23"h (56 cm x 59.7 cm)
hand-dyed cotton; letterpress printing from wood type and linocuts on cotton; Japanese cotton; hand and machine quilted

Details:

Hand-stitched a little here and there to denote interiors of the boxes.


Free-motion quilting says "check all boxes" with a box and hand sewn X.
Scribbled out words are the same as the printed ones, just oversewn.


Back



In and out and on and on we go.

*

9.28.22

Forgot to post this photo of a version of the tumbling blocks I recently saw painted on some barriers on Main Street in Santa Monica.



Comments

Liz A said…
the boxed X and the white grid ... I couldn't help but think of tic-tac-toe ... and then there's this, the sense of feeling boxed in by the times, the "idiot box" (my dad's preferred epithet) endlessly spewing bad news

I do love the thought tangents your quilts inspire ... thank you as always for sharing them here
Alisa said…
Liz A. tic-tac-toe does come into play. Life sometimes feels like a cat's game. Thanks, as always, for your comments.
Kathleen Loomis said…
I like the way you have done the tumbling blocks kind of loose, not worrying about matching the points. That's a pattern that has traditionally been a favorite of the quilt police, but it looks so much more energetic and contemporary this way! I never thought of this pattern as one conducive to improvisation, but I guess I was wrong.

And your type looks perfect.
Alisa said…
Thanks so much, Kathleen!
Zona said…
I love how you continue to combine your text with whatever medium you choose!
Alisa said…
Thanks, Zona! And if it isn't actually visible, it is behind the scenes. : )