Monday, May 5, 2008

Dumpster Dive Quilt









































I was in RI over the weekend, putting on a wedding shower with my sister Debby for my daughter Kaitlyn. We had the shower at Atria Bay Spring in Barrington where my Mom now lives. She has Alzheimer's. (What a wonderful place - Mom likes it there and the staff are so caring. God Bless them ALL).

My sister Deb also lives in Barrington. Kaitlyn and I last visited in February when we went down to look for wedding dresses. It was on that trip that Deb, Kaitlyn and I happened upon a trash can behind one of the dress shops that was full of fabric sample books. There were a couple of dozen books and they were perfectly clean. We grabbed them and put them in the back of my car - I figured I could use them for collages or something. Later I thought that it would be fun to make something for Kaitlyn from them and decided to make a quilt. I settled on this simple square patchwork - it was a challenge getting the fabric out of the books! The fabric is all really nice quality - 100% cotton, 100% linen - most of it made in the USA. So here you see the evolution of the Dumpster Dive Quilt! It was alot of fun to make, and Kaitlyn was completely surprised! She's all about recycling, so she loved it.

7 comments:

Susan Beauchemin said...

Nice! The quilt is beautiful--I wish I could have been there!

artslice said...

Martha I love this quilt, it really turned out great. Your daughter will have such a nice heirloom from you and a lovely story to go with it:) When is spring or summer wedding??

William R. Moore said...

Hi Martha,

Your gift will be such a meaningful lasting memory; In Maine, are quilts filled with tons of goose down? :0)

I discovered your site via of discovering your sister's, Susan, site. Your post of her self portraits are also many of my favorites. Those are all very good paintings. I bookmarked your site when I first discovered it, but every time I returned it always returned to that same page, 14 portraits on exhibit @ the University of New England in February. That happened every time I returned; leading me to believe that you were not posting. I was quite disappointed. You were then relegated to the infrequently visited. I was pleasantly surprised to discovery when I used the link on Susan's site you were continually posting from February through May. I have since made a new bookmark that works. :0) My time catching up was most enjoyable. Thanks

Someone ought to publish your amazing works and story. If approached, it should be an autobiography. It is a shame that you don't have printable records of all of the lost works. Maybe you have enough to document some of the early works. I guess it is more important the process and quality of life we live than the tangible works that survive us. I am inspired and amazed by your strength, courage, spirit, uniqueness, humanism; how you have faced your life's challenges by turning the negatives into positives.

William R. Moore said...

Martha, Found this quote after my previous post and felt like sharing. A picture is nothing but a bridge between the soul of the artist and that of the spectator. (Eugene Delacroix)
You do definitely connect. Thanks

martha miller said...

Sue, I wish you could have been there, too! Just think, though - you WILL be at the wedding!

martha miller said...

Thanks, Brenda! It was fun to make. Kait's wedding is September 20th out on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) up in Bar Harbour, about four hours north of Portland.

martha miller said...

Hi William - nice to hear from you! Glad you could get through. I wonder if there is a funky connection between your blog and mine (?) because I tried to view yours and I got bounced back to mine!
Thankyou for your thoughtful feedback and for that quote by Delacroix! That's a great one!!