"Angel's Trumpet" 33"W x 42"L Judy House 2003
Machine raw-edge applique, Machine quilted.
Brugmansia, the plant that many of us know as "Angel's Trumpet" comes in many colors and some flowers even have a fragrance. I've always thought that they look more like angel's skirts than trumpets, but the trumpet name has been around forever. Some day, when I have taken enough pictures of both the flowers and quilts inspired by the plant/flowers, I will make an angel's trumpet quilt.
This one was made by Judy House of Virginia who succumbed to cancer in 2005. I met Judy at Empty Spools classes at Asilomar, she was a long-time friend of Mary Leakey, who I also met at Empty Spools. Judy taught contemporary quilt making techniques and had a large following of friends and students. She fought the cancer for years and bemoaned the fact that the waiting areas of hospitals were so drab - she spent many hours there when she went for chemotherapy. She organized a project to put quilts on the walls at Walter Reed Hospital - inviting 37 quilt artists to create a quilt based on a plant or animal that has shown promise as a cancer fighting drug. You can see these quilts at: http://healingquiltsinmedicine.org/ and read more of Judy's story.
4 comments:
This is a beautiful quilt. I remember Judy well. I will never forget her last visit to Empty Spools where she showed the quilt that she made by hand sewing fragments of cloth together when she was weak and bedridden. It was a teary moment for me.
I miss Judy so much. But her legacy of the healing quilts at Walter Reed has continued to new healing quilt projects and this helps keeps her memory alive.
I wish I had had a chance to meet her. This is such a lovely quilt; I can't stop looking at it!
What an inspiring story. I love the quilt.
We had these plants in New Zealand, where they are known as Trumpet Lillies.
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