This is the view that Gus loved seeing out of his living room in Vermont. He felt strongly connected to his mountain. After he died, his grandson Call reached out to inquire about having a memorial quilt made for his bereaved grandmother, DD. She loved the idea and sent me some of her favorite garments that belonged to Gus.

The color palette of Gus’s shirts was a lovely mix of blue and white with accents of red and pink, but it was his white waffle-weave robe that ended up being the foundation fabric for the quilt. It felt so soft and cozy and there was plenty of it to work with.

As Call and I began our discussion around the quilt’s design, the image of the mountain view became a vital part of Gus’s story that Call wanted to emphasize. At one point in the process, I had sent him a schematic of a quilt structure that created an illusion of interwoven bands of fabric as a symbol of Gus’s deep love for his family. Call liked the design and sent a reply with the sketch pictured below, wondering if I could somehow mirror the horizon line of Gus’s mountain within the quilt pattern I had sent. This kind of back and forth collaboration is what makes my work so engaging.

It was decided that I would make an abstract landscape of Gus’s mountain within the interwoven pieced structure of the quilt. The darker fabrics were used for the land/mountain, and the lighter fabrics for the sky area. The white waffle-weave robe became the ground color that allowed all the colors to be highlighted.

The scale of the fabric pieces were based on the limits of how many shirts were sent as well as which shirts were required in each section. It made for a subtle delineation between mountain and sky.

Here is the final quilt, followed by a detail showing the quilting pattern representing the wind blowing across the landscape.

The quilt now lives in the same living room where Gus enjoyed contemplating his beautiful mountain.