When I travel to quilt festivals and quilt exhibits in other countries, one of my favorite things is to find the quilts that express the maker’s home country and native culture. The Festival of Quilts is the largest quilt festival in the UK/Europe part of the world, and it attracts quilt entries from Sweden to Germany and Italy and everything in between. It is a feast of culture and creativity!
Of course in the past year there were some major events in the UK. The Queen died after over 70 years on the throne, and Prince Charles became King Charles. Whether you love ’em or not, you have to admit it was a historic year for the Brits. Queen Elizabeth II was born in 1926, witnessed WWII, was coronated in 1952 at the tender age of 25, and died in 2022 after 70 years on the throne…the longest of any British monarch and any female head of state in history.
This quilt caught my eye, because it captured the famous coronation portrait of young Elizabeth, documented many historic events during her reign, and still managed to pull off a “Pop” style – reminding me of an Andy Warhol portrait.
In fact Warhol made a portrait of her from a photo taken in 1977 for her Silver Jubilee. I prefer her young coronation portrait.
I’ve included our Queen Elizabeth commemorative tea towel in the fabric collage frame for Fiona Wollaston’s clever art quilt – “70 Years a Queen”. You can see more photos including this quilt, on my photo pages. I’ll be adding more quilt photos this week, before I leave for Bear Camp on Friday.
My latest quilt “Uncompahgre Fritillary” is up in the new exhibit “Little Creatures” about endangered pollinators, at the Boulder Library Canyon Gallery. If you are in town, be sure to check out the exhibit.
Sharing your love of fabric…
Luana and Paul
* Photo of Fiona Wollaston’s quilt “70 Years a Queen” taken by Luana Rubin at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham UK.
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Travel/Quilt Calendar:
August 18-24 – Bear Camp in Alaska (via Homer)
Sept 14 – “Art & Activism” lecture at CU Boulder
Sept 28-30 – AQSG Seminar – Louisville, KY
Oct 27 – Nov 3 – Quilt Market/Festival – Houston TX
