Stripes of the zebra

My own biggest achievement in quilting also has a slight burden to it. It is a blatant copy of an art quilt. I wish I had the eye for composition that the artist has, but I don't. (Those with good eyes will recognise the stripes from the Blog label:))



I have never seen the original, only a picture in Great American Quilts, Issue Seven. A colour picture about 4" x 2" big. It haunted me for years. Until one day I decided - I had to make it. I think I spent another year gathering blue fabric. The background bothered me for a long time, until my good friend Kathi :) told me that she could paint the fabric for me. So we spent one of my vacation days in Colorado fall of 2003 painting the background. She even gave me her thumbprint on the fabric to make sure she was a part of it.



I zeroxed the picture in black and white and then kept zeroxing it up, size by size, until I got it to the size I wanted it. Then I cut out every single little pattern from a second copy, both numbering them so I would know where to put it. I then cut each part out on fusible paper before I ironed it onto fabric. Then I placed it all on the background fabric and spent days walking around it, looking at it from different angles and heights until I was satisfied. I ironed them all on, and then appliqued each piece on with buttonhole stitches in Lene's Silk thread.

The background is a fabric filled with zebras. I thought it fitting:) I finished it in May 2005.

It hangs in my living room over the sofa and I look at it every day. I am proud of it.

(The funny thing is, as I am now so acquinted with the different shapes of the different stripes, the next time I returned to Africa on safari, I recognised the stripes on the zebras in real life!)

On the label on the back it says: To prove I can.....

I hope the artist forgives me.