Saturday, March 15, 2014

Tricia's Translate Quilt

When thinking about the word translate the image that kept coming to me was a braille typewriter.  A year ago I was in my daughters 3rd grade classroom in Denver.  She had an almost completely blind student with an aide.  I noticed on her desk was a braille typewriter.  I had never seen one before and was intrigued.  It makes perfect sense but I had never thought about it.  When I looked braille typewriters up there was several different kinds.  The original braille typewriter was invented by a woodworker at Perkins School for the Blind in Newton Mass.  It has keys that correspond to the 6 dots.  It was first developed in 1951.  I thought it would be fun to use the typewritter for my journal quilt. 


In creating the quilt I used steam a seam lite to adhere the different fabrics.  I created the roll drum for the paper to go thru the typewriter by covering cording with fabric.  I used heavy heat and bond for the part of the typewriter that goes over the drum roll.  I used beads to be the braille bumps.  It says Translate in the beads.  I also signed my name Tricia with smaller beads at the bottom.  I stamped Translate across the top. I wanted to create the paper off of the quilt  as it would come out of the typewriter.  To create the paper I fused white kona cotton onto interfacing, stitched the edges and stitched it under the cylinder.



I really enjoyed making this quilt.  Thanks

10 comments:

  1. Such a great concept and of course execution. This is really fantastic Trisha. The three dimensional parts really work so well as does your color palate. Just love the way you did the typewriter. Perfect!!!

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  2. Tricia, brilliant interpretation of this theme that is proving to be so very versatile! I loved it that you showed two views of the quilt, so that we can see its dimensionality. Really effective and clever!

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  3. Oh Tricia, this is so very, very clever! I love everything about it. Thanks for the photo showing the three dimensional view. Great job!

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  4. I just think this piece is so creative. Love the way the paper sticks out, the braille, etc., etc.

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  5. This is just so whimsical yet sweet at the same time when I think about the 3rd grader who uses such a typewriter to communicate/translate with. Thank you for the explanation of how you constructed the 3D elements and including a side view photo.

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  6. Very different interpretation of theme. Love the dimensionality you've achieved.

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  7. A braille typewriter. What a beautiful quilt you created from such a special experience. All the dimension you achieved is amazing!

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  8. A very special little quilt. The dimensionality is wonderful and using braille to say translate and your name is perfect.

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  9. I love all the dimensional details you built in this quilt - especially your signature - so well done.

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  10. Love, Love, Love this. It is so expressive. Such wonderful texture which could be appreciate by a blind person as well as those of us with sight.

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