New Day-to honor my grandmother pics
My grandmother Katherine was an extraordinary woman, whom I know only through my mother. She came to this country alone at age 12 from Poland. She was strong willed, adventuresome and gutsy. I decided to make a quilt to honor her, focusing on her arrival.
She is the central figure, dressed in all dark colors. If you have ever seen any photos of immigrants at Ellis Island, in the late 1800's, they look like a series of white faces in a sea of black. That is mostly because of the state of contrast in photography in those days. Anyway, that is what I was trying to replicate by using all dark shades.
The crown of the Statue of Liberty is to represent the immigrants entry. The classic Flying Geese pattern was chosen to represent the restless, adventurousness of immigrants. The geese don't start or end perfectly to suggest that they came before her and are still coming.
{{!gwi}}
I got to do a lot of dimensional details in Katherine's clothing and the baggage.
The quilting at the left and right side of the quilt was to represent the rocks of the two shores. The background quilting were meant to be waves of the ocean. Quite by accident, 1986 was the celebration of the centential of the Statue of Liberty and there were many quilt competitions based on that theme. As it was a natural fit for what I had designed, I took the waves in the right hand panel and worked the word liberty in it vertically.
I wish my grandmother could have lived to give me advice on the details. Carole
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cannahavana
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