For the James Dean and fifties fan, this is a quilted wall hanging to warm your heart.

The quilt contains some of the standard James Dean photos: the earnest, clean cut stage shot from East of Eden, a more improv off-set shot from Giant; the standing wind-breaker shot from Rebel Without a Cause; a french movie poster for East of Eden; a brooding wind-breaker shot from Rebel Without a Cause; plus a studio still of Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo from Rebel Without a Cause; and a strange ad for replicas of the Porsche Speedster/Spyder. Then there is me and a couple of friends in prom dresses and a wonderful magazine ad with three teens at a pajama party.

The text reads: “Hero worship. Teen-age fantasies. What did I want from him? A gentle friend. A confidant. All that really innocent stuff. But there were some mysteries, too. The occult. The homosexuality. Because of him I read André Gide’s plays and listened to Béla Bartók. And tried to figure it out for myself.”

The fabrics are wildly synthetic, as was clothing in the fifties. (I had a pink-polka dot, taffeta skirt!)  There are velvets, taffetas, brocades and embossed fabrics,

I made this wall hanging in the mid-1990’s when I was experimenting with machine quilting. James Dean was my favorite move star as a young teen, and his death was, if not quite traumatic, pretty serious to me.

This quilt/wall hanging has not been exhibited very much, but if you are interested in seeing the fiber exhibitions I have participated in, that information is on this website under Quilt Exhibits.

This quilt/wall hanging is for sale in my Etsy store: AnetaSperber.