A friend and coworker of my husband was celebrating the first anniversary of her marriage. She is one of those people whose positive outlook inspires a delight in others. In recent years, she frequently sent bags of outdated commercial upholstery samples home to me by way of my husband. The selection that arrived in the fall of 2017 inspired me to begin sketching.
The resultant drawing was an oversized ampersand, an unfurling line (growth), and a background of wavy lines (floating above the world beyond). Radiating from the lower left are rays of light that give a sense of transparency to the piece. The laughter and joy of new love are manifested in the bubbles rising above the surface of the piece.
The size of the pieces were limited by the size of the samples and the number of times I wanted to use each piece of fabric. The ampersand was the first piece of this quilt to be rendered in fabric and is broken into segments becoming sinuous and twisting in the light as the figure completes itself. Every other part of this piece pays homage and acts as background for the ampersand.
These figures were interfaced with a piece of the Chilewich fabric—providing stability without weight or increasing the thickness of the piece. The figures were machine appliqued to the full sized Chilewich panel that acts as a frame, while not restraining the life of this piece.
Finally, when the ampersand and the unfurling line are viewed together they form one heart, combined with the belief; “And the Best is Yet to Come”.
In private collection.
