I have two favourite quilts but I will show this one since I already showed the other one. I made this for a quilt guild challenge in April 1990.
We were given three fabrics: the tone on tone that I used for the flesh; the blue print that I used as the necklace and for some of the flowers; and another print that I cut a motif out of to use as the snake and some of the pink flowers. The fabrics had to be visible on the quilt top. We could use our own fabrics but I can't remember how many. I used black, brown, white and the blue for the water. The finished dimension had to be less than 120 inches in circumference and I do believe the comment that went with the
instructions was something to the effect of being creative. What I did was to take two tape measures and lay them out on the floor in the rough outline of what I had in mind. This was after poring over loads of quilt magazines and my Southwest Art and Art of the West magazines. I knew I wanted to do something that had a native theme. I also wanted something unique. I came up with "Mother Earth and the Great Spirit." Mother Earth's hair flows into the the eagle's wing. It was loads of fun trying to capture what I wanted. It has applique, reverse applique, embroidery and I even used white-out with its brush for the loon's necklace and spots on the back. I think I have to re-apply the necklace. The horse is looking back at its owner who has died (the shroud - up on sticks, so that animals don't get to the body.) I populated it with animals that my friends and children liked. All free-hand drawn, cut and appliqued or embroidered. It is by no means perfect but I do love it. I have recently taken it off the wall since the sun from the skylight is fading it. I didn't and still don't really work in prints. That's why I cut the prints up and used the motifs in them.There were other quilts that were not the usual square or rectangle. Other people were just as creative with the fabrics and the instructions - one was even a 3-D mobile piece of art.
The guild challenge quilt that won was an appliqued quilt that was square. So much for creativity. Personal comments from several of the guild members later was that the judges were quite staid and old-fashioned - as were a lot of the members.
