Quilt from TCQC 05-17-09

This week's quilt is one that I purchased at the East Bay Heritage Quilters auction which is held in conjunction with their quilt show at the Oakland Convention Center in even numbered years. They always have very nice quilts, some made by 'world class' quilt makers. I had seen Ellen's work in Visions year after year and this small quilt spoke to me. It is a 'one-block' quilt - sixteen 7-3/4" blocks. Instead of using commercial fabric, Ellen has silk screened layers of pattern on the background fabrics. For some reason these maze like designs are difficult to photograph, so I am showing some details below.

"C-Block #6" Ellen Oppenheimer 1997 31"W x 31"L

I don't know which color is the background - I think the medium blue - but you can see the layers where the polka-dots disappear around their edges.

In these two blocks it appears that the polka-dots may have been the final silk screen used.

Here it is clear that the polka-dots were screened before the light blue.

Ellen won the Quilts Japan Prize at Visions 1997 and later went to Japan to teach and study, which is part of the prize. She describes her process in the Visions catalog for 2002, if you would care to read about it.

Thank you for all the good wishes that my health problem isn't serious. I'll have the test(s) this week sometime and will give an "organ recital" when I have something to share.