Quilt #1: Jacob?

06/04/2006

Okay, so my first mini-quilt took two weeks, but it ended up being more of an emotional journey for me that I bargained for.

BACKGROUND
The Friday before Memorial Day my 8-year old son was missing. For two terrifying hours, my husband and I searched along with the police for Jacob. There were about ten patrol cars looking for him and my husband was driving on neighboring streets. I spent the time walking up and down our own street calling his name. I was in tears and very near hysterical. I remember while searching for him that my friendly neighboorhood street seemed evil and menacing. Once we found Jacob, I sat down to capture my feelings that day. This first mini-quilt, entitled Jacob? is a reflection of my feelings that day.

The houses have an accusing look on their face. "How can you lose track of your son?" They also have blood red windows and doors that look more like eyes and a howling mouth. They are also tall, showing how small and powerless I felt. As I roamed the neighborhood, I found it difficult to control the frightful images of what might be occurring. Every house looked like a den of evil. Every person I saw looked like a child molester.

The sky is uncertain. "Will I find my son?", "Will he be okay?", "Is he hurt?", "Does someone have my son?" Those were just a few of the questions that tormented me.

The white street is hope - hope that he will be returned to me safely. The entire time we searched I had this tiny voice inside telling me everything was fine. The longer the search went, the harder it was to hear that voice.

The quilt is bound with staples, barley keeping it together. That's how I felt that day - as if I were coming apart at the seams.







TECHNIQUES
Materials used were lightweight canvas, fabric paints, crayons, poly and rayon threads. I started by drawing the picture with pencil directly onto the canvas, which was not ironed. I then used crayon to color in the major areas. Next, I applied fabric paint on top of the crayons to achive a deeper color. Paint colors were allowed to bleed. After drying, the paint was heat set and low-loft batting was pinned to the back of the picture.

For thread painting, I set my machine for free-motion embroidery and removed the foot. (I seem to work better with no foot, but you have to watch your fingers). For the sky, I used complimentary colors on top of the paint color to add another dimension.

Finally, I cut the piece with my picking shears, not paying too much attention to keeping straight lines. I then used a stapler to attach the front and back together.