Erie, Pennsylvania

– A Contemporary Art Quilt with Traditional Patterning, Vintage Fabrics and Photographs

Erie, Pennsylvania was made following a summer trip through that area, during which my car broke down. While I was waiting to for the car to be repaired, I was lucky enough to find some wonderful vernacular photographs in local antique stores. The result, the next summer, was this quilt.

I had been collecting pink and green “fifties” fabrics for some time, and everything came together for this quilt.

The size covers a queen sized bed adequately, or a double, very generously. The batting is cotton, and it hangs very flat as a wall piece. It has a hanging sleeve. The quilt was hand quilted for me by Flora Mc Mannis when she lived in Ohio. Although currently not for sale, I will entertain inquiries about purchasing this piece.

To view my resume of quilt exhibits, click here.

James Dean, In My Memory

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 taffeta pink-polka dot 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, please click here.

As a general note: I am getting on in years and want to move many of my creations on to happy homes and new lives out of my closet! This piece is for sale in my Etsy shop, AnetaSperber.