Gordon's Quilt

Today I wanted to share a new video on Gordon's Quilt, a work dedicated to a young man who died too soon. The quilt is put together with photos, clothing, and mementos from his life as a tribute to his legacy. Gordon was the son of two of Dr. Gaither's good friends and she wanted to honor his memory for them through one of her works. Gordon's mother provided Dr. Gaither several items to be included on the quilt. In the video, Dr. Gaither talks about Gordon and how she put this quilt together.



Gordon's Quilt is on display at the Maryland State Arts Council through 18 March 2011 as part of Dr. Gaither's Respecting Humanity exhibition.

If you have trouble viewing the video, click here to view it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjH0AiB58NA

Watermen Favorites

Black Watermen of the
Chesapeake Bay, detail
(c) Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, 2009

Today I thought I would share some of the insider stories and favorite areas of the Black Watermen's quilt. The parts of the quilt listed below represent the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to creating one of Dr. Gaither's artworks. The inspiration for this posting comes from taking time looking at the quilt last week at the Maryland State Arts Council. It has been several months since I have seen the quilt, but when looking at it many of the memories of the marathon quilting sessions came back and I thought I would share.

1. Appropriating

The concept that Dr. Gaither is a master appropriator has been well documented here (see Tablecloths Beware! postings). Just a few days ago I had to stop her from asking a man at a local restaurant about his shirt, knowing full well where she wanted to go with her questioning. It went as far as me reminding her that the restaurant did have a no shirt no shoes no service policy. I will say, for all of her appropriating attempts, she has never actually been able to appropriate anything from me.

Black Watermen of the Chesapeake Bay, detail
(c) Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, 2009

The blue heron on the lower right hand corner of the quilt is the result of one of her appropriations. When quilt completion deadlines approach, Dr. Gaither's quilting community rallies around her and gathers to help get the quilt finished. This was never more evident than in November and December 2009 as the Watermen's quilt deadline neared. Every evening at least 4 quilters came to Dr. Gaither's workspace to assist with the quilt, sometimes with the number of quilters nearing 10-12. On one particular evening, one of the quilter's family members came over to see the progress of the quilt and take part in the action. During the time they were there, Dr. Gaither happened to notice the quilter's husband was wearing a sweatshirt with a blue heron on it and the wheels started turning in her head. After a few minutes, she went over to talk with him and suddenly everyone in the room was aware of what she was up to. When Dr. Gaither finally coyly asked for the shirt, the quilter exclaimed "Joan! You are not going to take the shirt off my husband's back!" Immediately after, her husband took the sweatshirt off and handed it to her. She promptly picked up the scissors and cut the shirt up in case there was a change of heart. Now that the quilt is finished, this story is one of the Gaither legends which is told over and over again.

Black Watermen of the
Chesapeake Bay, detail
Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, 2009

2. Life jackets
The light houses at the bottom of the quilt are some of the most vibrant pieces on the quilt and rightfully so. Just as light houses are used as beacons to help ships safely on their journey, the light houses on the quilt have life saving properties as they are made from a life jacket that was used to help the person wearing it on their journey. The light houses started off as a donated jacket from a friend of Dr. Gaither's neighbor. It isn't an unusual occurrence for people to donate all sorts of items to Dr. Gaither for her to use on her quilts. The life jacket was an intriguing donation that Dr. Gaither wanted to use, but had no idea how. The life jacket itself was too large to go on the quilt as it was and she didn't really know how to reduce it. The idea to use it as two lighthouses was inspired by images of lighthouses already on the quilt and the shape of the front portion of the jacket.

Black Watermen of the Chesapeake Bay, detail
Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, 2009

Dr. Gaither cut the life jacket apart but left the straps on, using them to link the two lighthouses together. The fastener that normally goes around the wearer's waist now fastens across the waist of the angel in the middle of the quilt, seemingly securing her. This is rather appropriate since the words "Saved by Grace" are embroidered across her. Dr. Gaither created the lighthouses and placed images on and around them that help to tell the story of the quilt, both content and creation-wise. It is on one of these lighthouses that Dr. Gaither decided to have a little fun with me. As the quilt neared completion, I was working with her on site every day. One day I had company in town and brought them over to show them the quilt and Dr. Gaither met us at the door smiling like a Cheshire Cat, making me both suspicious and nervous. She talked about some of the changes and additions she made since the last time I was there and casually referenced that she had placed me on the quilt. After some looking, I finally saw it. There, on one of the light houses was a picture of her mother, sister, and myself as seen through the screen on my camera with Dr. Gaither's great niece playing photographer. The picture was taken one night while working on the quilt. Dr. Gaither finally got her "revenge" on me for taking pictures of her and putting them in a public context. I suppose I can't be too terribly upset. Do unto others....

3. Driving to distraction

Black Watermen of the Chesapeake Bay, detail
Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, 2009

Throughout the quilting process, Dr. Gaither encounters certain components of her quilt that turn into brainstorming issues. Many ideas come into her head, but not all of them translate easily when moving from the mental to the physical. Other times, ideas that worked well at the beginning of the design process turn out to be less than ideal. On the Watermen's quilt, one of the biggest problems was the Bay Bridge. In real life, the Bay Bridge is a feat of engineering, a suspension bridge that spans the Eastern and Western Shores of Maryland running from Annapolis in Anne Arundel County and over to Kent Island and Queen Anne's County. The bridge on the quilt was an engineering issue all its own.

Black Watermen of the Chesapeake Bay, detail
Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, 2009

When I first saw the Bay Bridge interpreted on the quilt, I didn't even realize what it was. The bridge was small and almost appeared like a white cap rather than a bridge. A few times, I found myself thinking it looked like the underside of the whale in Disney's Pinocchio when it is breaching. I don't really know why that visual came to mind, but it did. I didn't say anything as I thought Dr. Gaither was rather pleased with it but after a few weeks, I discovered she wasn't liking the bridge either. The bridge went through several sizes and designs as Dr. Gaither tried to resolve the problem. Every time, the bridge looked out of proportion, blended in, or stood out too much. The Bay Bridge issue was finally resolved while Dr. Gaither and I traveled to the Grasonville, MD public quilting session, almost at the expense of my car. To travel to Grasonville, Dr. Gaither and I had to drive over the Bay Bridge. As I drove up to the bridge's toll booth, Dr Gaither got quiet. When we started driving across, she started yelling, "I've got it! Slow down, slow down!" Slowing down on the Bay Bridge is never an option given the amount of traffic and need to keep moving to avoid accidents. She pulled out her camera and started photographing the bridge as we drove over. Lo and behold, she did indeed finally resolve the issue with the final version of the Bay Bridge going on the quilt (on top of one of the previous attempts) a few days later. To this day, any time I go over a bridge with her or cross the Bay Bridge I can't help but exclaim "slow down, slow down!"

There you have a few of the favorite and frequently recounted stories behind the Black Watermen quilt I hope you enjoyed the anecdotes. I know I got a smile from the memories.

Pin Out!

Pin out!

This phrase was called out quite often last night as I sat working with Dr. Gaither and a few of her family members on the latest addition to the My American Series. Currently Dr. Gaither is working on the National Black Theater Festival quilt which is set to debut at the festival in Winston Salem, NC this August. The quilt follows in the same over sized tradition of the others in the series -- huge! To illustrate, when we finished sewing last night, Dr. Gaither measured the quilt which came out to be 11 feet long and over 9 feet wide. That is without the final border. Once that is in place, the quilt will measure out to be around 12 ft x 10 feet. That is two of me standing one on top of the other to make up the height. We have great pictures of the quilt laying out on a king size bed draping onto the floor and making the king bed look like a double if not a twin. I can't post any of those pictures yet as they reveal the overall design of the quilt which I am keeping a secret for now. There are some new components/techniques on the quilt which are very interesting and I don't want to give away the surprise. Lets just say the phrase 3-D comes into play....

The quilt is currently held together with many safety pins. As people are working on the quilt, they focus on a specific area and work it through. As they go, they are able to take the safety pins out, signifying that the part they are working on is getting closer to completion. Needless to say, Dr. Gaither was yelling "pin out" almost every 2 minutes as she worked along the border of the quilt adding on content boxes similar to the information boxes placed on the railroad fabric in the border of many of the other quilts. As for my quilting, I wasn't yelling "pin out." My contribution to the project last night was going through strings of letter beads she had loosely sewn to the quilt and securing them on. No pins involved, although I did somehow manage to end up being the technical advisor and assistant to her young niece Rockelle, helping her to problem solve. How the least sewing-experienced person in the room ended up with that role, I will never know.

The National Black Theater Festival quilt is really starting to shape up with many of the design elements in place. Right now we are working to get many of the design pieces sewn down before putting the backing fabric on. The reason for holding off on putting backing fabric on until the design elements are on is to minimize the number of stitches on the back of the quilt. This will make for a more sylistic design and uniformity of stitching on the back. Right now the quilt consists of the top layers of fabric which have all the fancy pieces of fabric and the design on them. Underneath that is batting, a cottony fill in sheet form that makes the quilt puffy and soft. Finally there are strips of fabric, mainly old (and thoroughly cleaned) bed linens on the bottom to create a smooth surface to sew through on the back.

When the backing fabric is added, it will be one type of fabric which will create a clean back. Adding the backing fabric is no small feat. It isn't as simple as pinning it to the back and running the edges through the sewing machine. When this fabric is added, it will actually take multiple people sewing, lifting, and stretching the fabric to make sure it completely fits the quilt and that there aren't any gaps or problems with anything being attached crooked. It is probably the most demanding part of putting one of Dr. Gaither's quilts together.

Once the backing is attached, Dr. Gaither and her quilters will work to secure the backing to the entire quilt by working in horizontal and vertical rows stitching lines across the quilt. They will also go in among the fabric and decorations of the quilt stitching around the edges of the designs. This will allow for some of the individual components of the quilt fabric to really stand out as well as better secure the fabrics. When working on the Black Watermen of the Chesapeake quilt, I was given the task of sewing around the gold faces on the blue border fabric. Just to give you an idea of how tough that was, each of those face was only about 1.5 inches wide and were lined up one right next to the other. Each face had to be secured with tiny stitches around the edges making for several long working days.

Needless to say, there is much work to be done and little time to get it finished. Dr. Gaither has set a completion date of early to mid-March with the bulk of the work being completed by the end of February. There won't be any formal public quilting sessions for this quilt given the amount of work that needs to be done, but if you are interested in participating and helping to get this quilt completed, send us an email at jgaitherstoryquilter@gmail.com. We will be working furiously over the next few weeks and will be looking for quite a bit of assistance.

Pin out!


Oh, a few publicity and advertising notes:

1.  Dr. Gaither and the Black Watermen of the Chesapeake quilt were featured with several photographs and an article spanning five pages in the February edition of What's Up Annapolis magazine. I haven't been able to locate the article online, but if anyone else does, please send me the link.
2. Dr. Gaither's Respecting Humanity exhibition at the Maryland State Arts Council has been extended to March 18, 2011. If you haven't had a chance to see the show, I encourage you to go. Dr. Gaither and I went to the Arts Council on Friday and shot some great footage of her talking about each of the quilts and their meanings. The videos will start appearing on here very soon.
3. Dr. Gaither is nominated for the Baker Artist Awards here in Baltimore. You can check out her nomination on their website by clicking here. The nomination includes all of the My American Series as well as her Family Quilt, and Distractions and Diversions.