As I was working on the otter and kelp quilts in October, I printed and overprinted the word HOME in wood type, thinking I would make a black and white quilt about the unhoused and homelessness. I knew the title: "Home More or Less," and I knew it would be a cityscape. As I started arranging it, the colorist in me couldn't just work with the black and white, so, two months later, it became a cityscape at sunset.
It also has a sidewalk of scraps in front. I quilted by stitching a few places across the letters in black and in shades of gray, and then…what to do with the background?
I wrestled with ideas from sashiko patterns, simple running stitches, free-motion quilting, but had to let it sit. It needed more something. I worked on other quilts.
I had written a poem several years ago about the city, a city, being in a city, city life persona: how about free-motion quilting that? Yes. A poetry quilt. I know it is nearly impossible to read, but that's okay.
Here is the prose poem straight up; it repeats words randomly on the quilt.
I put on dark glasses over my real eyes. I tug my jacket over my wings. I pull on heavy boots over my claws. I gargle and spit. Now I am ready for your torrent of words: your sighs and your signs. Now I am ready for my life in the city.
And the back.
On to the next project…
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