I saw my first “art quilt” at the Lancaster Quilt Show in the early 1990s. It was a textile interpretation of a Jackson Pollack painting, with the drizzles of paint represented by strips of fabric and the splatters represented by stitches, knots and beads.

The piece, roughly 40 inches wide and 28 inches high, was fascinating…but baffled the traditional quilters who reacted with variations of, “That doesn’t look like any quilt I’ve ever seen.” (I wish I could find one of the photos I took of that quilt. It was truly amazing!)

Since then, I’ve found myself increasingly drawn to the art quilts and away from more traditional quilts. I’ve taken hundreds of photos of quilts on display at local and national shows, made notes of techniques and identified specific quilt artists who I have found inspirational.

Even so, it took me about 15 years until I attempted my first art quilt, a table runner that I designed and sewed for a table runner contest sponsored by the local quilt shop in Winchester, Va.

I had a vision, but no “pattern.” I had to experiment with a bunch of different techniques to get the apple blossom petals and leaves to stand up and learn how to manipulate multiple materials to get the delicate texture of the flower centers.

While the end result didn’t represent the best in technical skills (the binding was particularly bad), I was pretty happy with it. And best of all, my runner won first place in the contest (although the 3-dimensional design did lead to comments from the 2nd place winner that “You can’t use that on a table — you can’t place anything on it.”).

But I rack that up to sour grapes.

When I moved to SC a few years ago, one of the personal goals I set for myself was to pursue my interest in art quilting. It took a while, but I found a great group of textile artists who encourage my efforts through their thoughtful critiques and great ideas at our monthly meetings in Brevard, NC.

I have been dabbling a bit with techniques– rust dyeing, surface design, block printing and embellishment — but haven’t really had a “project” in mind to utilize those techniques and learn new ones.

Enter Vera.

My friend Vera lost her dear friend Irv two years ago; Irv was an amazing gentleman who I had the pleasure of meeting during a visit to San Diego.

Irving Refkin lived a fascinating life. In addition to his many successes and his philanthropic efforts, he had a well-deserved reputation as a snazzy dresser who loved designer suits and ties…and left an extensive collection of both to his friend Vera when he passed away in 2017.

I saw Vera during a recent visit to DC. During the course of the conversation, she asked me if I had ever made a quilt from neckties. I had a vision of memorial quilts, featuring Dresden plates and other traditional design motifs.

Frankly, I was not inspired and my immediate reaction was to refer her to someone who specialized in memory quilts.

But then Vera told me she was open to more abstract, geometric, contemporary designs and that as an art collector, her tastes were much less traditional. Plus, she really wasn’t looking for a “quilt” but an art piece to add to her collection. That got my imagination fired up and started my creative juices going.

I did some quick image searches for Vera to get an idea of what she would like. Since this posting is getting a bit long, I’ll share the examples in my next blog post, and will be sure to credit the original artists.

I’m happy to report that Vera and I landed on the same favorite style, so now I have a specific direction to follow. Now, I just have to figure out how to transform my materials into a piece that will do justice to Irv and his amazing tie collection.

Challenge accepted!