Georgia Loves New York Quilt

A former student Georgia Heller has taken off by leaps and bounds.  Here is a finished painted quilt done for a guild challenge. Really Sharp!! I apologize to Georgia for a slow posting.  I'll just say it's been a heck of a year and it finally caught up with me in both injury and cold/sore throat. Dang...  we don't bounce back as fast as when we were 16!  Beautiful piece Georgia.

The quilt had to be 18” w x 48”h  and it should be inspired by where you are from. We have so many transplants here in AZ from all over the country and other parts of the world, we thought it would make an interesting exhibit.

Wanda Seale suggested I send you a photo since it is all painted with the Tsukineko inks.

To get gradations of blue for the sky and water I mixed inks with the Folkart Floating Medium. Since this mix bleeds a lot when wet, I painted them separately and then appliqued the center section to them. I also painted the statue of Liberty separately and appliqued her to the piece. The poem was printed from my computer, painted, and then appliqued. 

Until moving to Arizona in 2010, I lived most of my life in NYC and several suburbs near NYC. Of course you have the iconic skyscrapers of Manhattan, but to me, NY is also about the many neighborhoods. There are beautiful parks so I included grass and autumn trees (living now in AZ, I miss the colorful autumn leaves). It is a city with people who came from all over the world, who made lives there, and created the wonderful place called NY. The Statue of Liberty, with the poem by Emma Lazarus, welcomes new arrivals. On one side of my family my grandparents and on the other side my great-grandparents came to NY  from Europe. Note, I quilted an outline of the twin towers in the background.

Thank you again for getting me started on using the inks.

Georgia Heller