Yes, We Can!

Title: Yes, We Can!
Finished: June/July (?) 2009
Techniques: Appliqué, Machine writing, Free motion quilting
Size: 19 x 25"

Description: It's funny how things happen sometimes. Back in 2009, I answered a "Call for Artists" request from the public library as part of their annual "All Pikes Peak Reads" event in conjunction with the DreamCity: Vision 2020. The theme was "Creating the Future". So I whipped up this mini-quilt and submitted it, but I forgot to take a picture of it. Anyway, it was put on display along with all the other entries during the community summit held in July. After the event was over, I tried contacting the library to see about getting the mini-quilt back, but no one seemed to know anything about it. "Oh well." I thought, "Maybe someone out there is enjoying it." So I freely gave it to the universe, and didn't give it much more thought.

Fast forward to 2013. I got a call last week from Kaitlin Hoke, a librarian at East Library, saying she has this quilt with my name on it and would I like it back? Yes! Thank you, Kaitlin! Now, Kaitlin and I know each other from when her mother Debra worked at Tutt. So I have to wonder if I would have even gotten a call if Kaitlin didn't recognize my name. But I'm glad I got it back -- and now I can share it with you.

This mini-quilt is a reflection of my dream of what I'd like our future to be: being stewards of the planet, using renewable energies, having respect for life, and having the opportunities to pursue our dreams.

Originally, I thought I might do one big landscape, with an ocean at the bottom and outer space at the top and everything else in between. But none of the ways I was sketching it appealed to me. So instead I created individual panels separated with green sashing strips. This provided me with an opportunity to try out machine writing. It's difficult to make out, but there are words that I spelled out with free-motion stitching on the sashing strips:

• trees (an important source of oxygen)
• respect for life (symbolized by the columbine flower in memory of Columbine High School)
• peace & harmony (symbolized by human beings - and one alien creature - holding hands. Apparently people in the future wear a lot of polka dots.)
• solar energy (do you see the solar panels on the roof tops?)
• wind power (yes, those are funky windmills in the lower left)
• clear blue oceans (I worry about the destruction and contamination of the various reef systems)
• imagination (Yes, We Can do anything we set our minds to)

Enjoy!