Judy Elsley
This queen-sized bed quilt is composed of cloth that's been improvisationally printed and then decorated with wax rubbing.
Inhale . . . Exhale
Breathing: the difference between life and death. This quilt celebrates the importance of breath.
My Mother's Medications
My mother had a panoply of medical problems: Parkinson’s, a slow growing breast cancer, high blood pressure, depression and insomnia. There’s a pill for each of those, and sometimes a variety of pills that have to be taken several times a day. Of all her disabilities, deafness is the one she struggles with most, and ironically, there’s no pill for that.
This quilt is about all those medications, each one a slightly different color and shape, all of them working through her system, doing whatever it is they do. I painted white cotton cloth with dyes, and then cut the cloth into squares to make the background piece. I dyed cheese cloth with the white cotton, and covered the background patchwork with the dyed cheesecloth. The yellow and blue squares are pieces of cloth I made in a class with Jan Myers-Newbury. Finally, I sewed some of the plastic tabs that separate out my mother's pills on to the quilt, using embroidery floss to do seed stitch.
Family Quilt
I made this quilt for my brother after my parents died. On it, I inscribed biths, deaths and other important occasions in our immediate family.
The End of the World
I love the otherworldliness of this quilt. It's hanging in the conference room of the Dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology at Weber State University
You Are Here
It's so hard to live in the present rather than the past or future. This quilt reminds me of that struggle as I slip in and out of Being Here Now.
The Geese Get Away
I made this quilt at a workshop in England in 2003, and it was the first time I dyyed fabric. I still love the color and design.
Green Shibori
I made these shibori fabrics in a class I took with Jan Myers-Newberry.
