Block #53

Creator

Claire Virginia Bonesteel

Location

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Creator demographics

26; Gender non-conforming, Genderqueer, Nonbinary; White; Gay, Lesbian, Queer

Materials and construction

Quilting cotton; Fabrics passed down from my mother and grandmother, including fabrics used for childhood dresses and skirts by my mother; Machine sewn; Several smaller blocks are pinwheel blocks, the rest of the block was made with improv quilting.

Description from maker

The Palisades (self given title)

The pinwheel blocks I included from a former project I was working on that never took full form. My sewing background is primarily in quilting and I tend to get very precise about the measurements, but for this block I wanted to break out of my usual practice. The pinwheels were created with half-square triangles and when I made them, it was my first time creating that pattern

I did not use the guiding questions!; I wanted to work on a project that was different from the way I typically conduct my sewing practice. I tried to break out of my pattern of obsessing over measurements and size, and leaned more into improv. I didn't think so much about the final outcome while I was working, and focused more on how fabric patterns looked with each other.; Many of the fabrics used in this quilt were used by my mother around 20 years ago to make dresses & skirts for my siblings and I, who were all raised & socialized as girls. We now all lie somewhere outside of the gender binary. I wanted to recognize my past and celebrate the ways in which my relationship with sewing and relationship with gender have changed over time.

Visual description

3 pinwheels, strawberry fabric. Block is a large variety of printed fabrics, including florals and calicos, with a dominant color scheme of pink, blue, and green.

Date

2023

Dimensions

12.5x12.5

Rights

The Euphoria Quilt

Identifier

TEQ-2024-01-53