Just over one year ago an incident of extreme horror and sadness occurred in Orlando, a short distance from our home. Many young men and women were heartlessly slaughtered by a lunatic. This happened at the Pulse nightclub.
Andy and I decided to create a fabric art piece in honor of the young people who were shot, lost their lives, and to those who are currently still recovering.
The dimensions are 70" long and 65" wide, and as you may have seen it as we have posted it, it is many strips on strips. Each strip was appliquéd and uniquely quilted to represent the uniqueness of each and every individual.
The titanium grey strips represent all those persons who tragically lost their lives. The colored strips represent the survivors. Our intent is to compact the strips, hopefully, to portray how the individuals may have felt as they were confined within their hour(s) of need and desperation.
All piecing and appliquéing have been completed. All strips were cut with our
AccuQuilt Go! Big. Our quilting process was to pebble the background, small-to-large, moving from the bottom up. Each strip has been geometrically-gridded and individually quilted to represent each person's individuality.
All together we hope that this will provide a sense of loss, bereavement, fear, unity, and strength.
OPOY, "
Orlando Pulse One Year" is our memory to the Pulse massacre.
We also feel that that idea of a skyline represents the universal community of LGBT individuals. Each stript represents reaching up to best surmount that which societies have for so many years attempted to constrain and ignore.
OPOY is currently on display beginning tomorrow and this upcoming weekend at
MQX Quilt Festival – West in Springfield, Illinois at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Convention Center.
Here are some of our work and progress images.
Follow our work and updates at both our
Quilts SB site and our
Quilts SB Facebook page.
To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual grid presentation at the bottom of the
Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.
Please let me know if anything on the Blog site does not properly work. I’m always striving to make sure an ease of use.
If you are interested and would like some more information of the available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please get in touch with us
Quilts SB, at jsmith58@gmail.com.
Regards,
Jim and Andy
