Monday, May 31, 2010

A Journal Quilt: Memories of a California Easter



Easter 2010 was in early April.  And here it is, the last day of May, and I am only now posting my journal quilt inspired by our Easter visit to California.  The most dramatic event during that visit was the earthquake which we felt Easter Sunday afternoon as only a very slight, seconds' long, tremor.  Of course, those further South, at the epicenter, had an entirely different experience.  I attempted in my journal quilt to depict the splitting of the Earth of an earthquake, but to me, it looks more like a brown river!  Superimposed on the earthquake scene are, what else, Easter eggs, and also a vase of flowers.  Both eggs and flowers played a huge part in our Easter visit, naturally.  Southern California is a feast for the eyes with all of its flowers!  Too, Kathy and her family gave a pot of hydrangeas to be used in the church sanctuary,  in honor of Roman's father, who died last October.  The church was ablaze with scores of lovely potted plants of many varieties. 

We brought the pot of hydrangeas home, and we also purchased a mixed bunch of flowers at the farmers' market on Saturday.  The vase of flowers in the quilt picture above is rather surreal, since the pansies (of course a small flower) are huge compared to the roses and the daisies!  But I adore pansies, which remind me of both my father and my grandmother, so I wanted them to be prominenent.  I used a shiny voile fused to some white fabric to try to give the effect of a shiny pottery vase; this doesn't show up so well in the photo.  One photo from the Easter visit that I particularly love depicts Locke beside the pot of hydrangeas that Kathy and Roman brought home from the church.  As always, click to enlarge the photos, particularly the one below of our six year old Locke on Easter Sunday!


5 comments:

  1. Great representation of your CA visit, Alice. I love the earth-quaking background and the pretty colors and overall design. Of course, Locke and the hydrangeas are the ideal ending for your blog :).

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  2. Very nice! It looks like an earthquake to me, however lovely :*) with many symbols of what was going on at the time. Who cares how long something takes. Hannah says that taking more time gives people more to enjoy looking at. Fine colors as usual for you. Good depth and tone. I want to see it when finished!

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  3. I appreciate Linda's kind comments. But this journal quilt is very definitely finished. Evidently the fact that the quilt is pinned to my design wall and the edges are raw made Linda conclude that it was not yet complete. She just hasn't noticed that ALL my journal quilts have raw edges, since someday I may join them into a single quilt.

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  4. Good blog, interesting comments. How did you get Locke to peek around the flower vase like that? Is that bread and wine on the altar? Is it supposed to be representative or the actual communion table? Anyway, very spiritual. You're great at having your camera always at ready. So often I go somewhere and then wish I'd brought my camera.

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  5. Yes, that's bread and wine on the communion table at their Presbyterian church in Newport Beach. As for Locke, all I had to do was to say, "Locke, let me take a picture of you with those flowers so we can send it to Grandma. She'd love to see the flowers your parents gave in memory of Grandpa." He is always happy to pose! As for always having my camera ready--yes, it's small, and almost always in my purse!

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