Hello, Music Lover!
Friends of the Elora Festival have asked me to help create a quilt that reflects the love of people for all kinds of music and which, when put together, will be auctioned off in celebration of their 35th Anniversary in 2014.
You are invited to design and make an 8 1/2" cotton square to be incorporated into the quilt. There are only two guidelines: it has to be based on a piece of music, and it has to include at least one of the 35th anniversary colours, an emerald green and/or a soft coral. Here are the colours:
Call or e-mail us at khouston@gmail.com or rooster@quican.com for the kit which includes a questionnaire to get you thinking in depth about your chosen piece of music, and some guidelines. Or if you don't trust colours on your screen or from your printer, for $5 we'll send you a good sized sample of the cloth itself.
If you don't know where to start interpreting your piece of music into a textile design, enrol in a one-day design workshop. We will cover how colour can reflect mood, choosing a harmonious colour scheme to suit your music, effective combination of colour and shape, and how to think like a stitcher if someone else might be doing the assembly. The second workshop (piecing) is about assembly and finishing, including curved seams, applique, addition of text (only if essential!), top stitching and fabric paint.
If there is a piece of music you would really like to be in the quilt, you can also just make a donation to the festival (minimum $50), give us your musical selection, and we will design a quilt square for you.
So let's go - here's what we have got so far!
A beloved piece of music for me: Bach's Air on a G String:
Claire de Lune, by Debussy. This one could just as easily be Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, by the way!
Greensleeves (the tune for which probably pre-dates Henry VIII, by the way, so he didn't write it. He was too busy chopping off his wives' heads, anyway). Also, you might be interested to know that the medieval habit of wearing green on your sleeve was because the colour meant loyalty - the knight or whoever was swearing fealty to his lady when he wore it. This custom is likely where Shakespeare got his famous line "he wore his heart on his sleeve." One person thought that the shapes looked like amoeba, so I embroidered hands at the end of the sleeves to give people an extra clue!
Okay, do I really need to tell you this one? The clue is in the piper - the second line of the song is "the pipes, the pipes are calling."
This is a rock 'n roll song. The colours - from the seventies, right? Look at the line of music (it's in the treble clef, but it's played by a bass guitar) and note that this is LOUD. Repeat once. Got it? By the Stones, man, the Stones.
I don't want to give you whiplash, but this one is close to the other end of the spectrum - the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. There was just no other way I could think of to show the joyful celebration of the text except with fireworks, and the only way to show which celebration it was was to take some of the text itself.
So, music lovers all, join in this fun project if you like music and you have always wondered how you could translate it into your own piece of visual art. The CD covers are great - but there is nothing like getting deep into why you love a piece of music, and then doing your own art rendition of it.
The squares will be sewn together and quilted by friends of the Elora Festival into a queen-sized quilt. If we receive more squares that we need (144), the leftover ones will be made into a smaller piece and also included in the auction. And if you don't want to give away your square - it's okay! Just please allow us to photograph it, and we'll make up a square and put it in the quilt for you. All designers and their piece of music will be listed on the back of the quilt, after it is completed!
For more information, visit or call the new Elora Festival office at 136 Metcalfe Street in Elora (519 846 0331), or call Kathy at 519 820 1314 or me (Susan) at 519 856 2364.
