I made this quilt almost a year ago. But it was a secret project, so I haven’t posted any photos until now.
In October 2017, Kim Caskey of Edmonton AB asked if I would like to participate in a project called World Wide Whispers.
‘World Wide‘ because there are teams from 5 different countries – Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, USA and Canada. Each team had 12 members (except Canada, with 13 members, a representative from each province and territory).
‘Whispers‘ because it’s a bit like the child’s birthday party game where the leader starts by whispering a sentence in the ear of the next participant and then continues around the room, evolving and changing from the original sentence. For Team Canada, Kim started the process at the beginning of 2018 by making an art quilt inspired by a photo. She sent a photo of her quilt to the next person, who had one month to create a 18″ by 24″ quilt inspired by that photograph. Each team member only saw the photo of the quilt before theirs. We had to keep our quilts confidential (even from the other team members) until the big reveal in early 2019.
In May 2018, I received an email from Karen Henry of Nova Scotia with an image of her quilt “Anchor & Drift”. When I first saw Karen’s quilt, I was immediately struck by the three boats in primary colours of blue, red and yellow. I pixelated her image, to focus on the shapes and colors.
“Anchor & Drift” by Karen Henry “Anchor & Drift” pixelated
My piece is an abstracted interpretation of Karen’s quilt. I simplified the boat shapes to three pod shapes, floating on a neutral background. I added some zing to the conservative primary colours by bracketing each one with brighter, bolder related colours.
Here are some progress photos of my construction techniques – my initial sketch and freezer paper pattern (mirror image), auditioning fabrics, checking values, all the thread colours I used.
Here’s a photo of the Team Canada starting photo and the 13 quilts (from a presentation that Kim made). They have also been published in the summer issue of Canadian Quilter magazine, although I haven’t received my issue yet.
The entire project took all of 2018 to complete. Each of the 5 countries assembled their team of 12 participants (13 for Canada), who each took one month to receive, create and send on to the next person. There are a total of 61 quilts from the 5 countries. What a thrill to be part of this international project!
The quilts will be exhibited around the world at various quilt festivals and shows throughout 2019 and 2020, including the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK in August 2019 and Quilt Canada in Edmonton in June 2020. I’m looking forward to seeing them in real life.
The Netherlands Quilt Guild has a great web post showing all the quilts, including the starting photo for each team. https://www.quiltersgilde.nl/world-wide-whispers/
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Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
- Em’s Scrap Bag Moving It Forward Monday
- Love Laugh Quilt Monday Making
- WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network
- WIPs on Wednesday at Esther’s Quilt Blog
Wow Terry, so fantastic! Love your piece!
I love that the progression seems to go full circle – starting and ending with a landscape!
What an interesting challenge.
Holy hell, that’s awesome! I love your quilt, especially your colour choices. Seeing the progress through all the quilts is fascinating to look at.
I saw it this weekend at EDQG’s Festival of Quilts. One of my jobs over the weekend was Quilt Show Ambassador where just wandered around talking to people and telling them about quilts. There was lots of interest but many people just looked and didn’t read. After they heard the story they inevitably went back, read artists statements and really absorbed the Whispers Show.