Friday, March 15, 2013
Lois's Communications
When I heard the theme for some reason, the lack of communications between children growing up today kept sticking in my head. Visions of kids sitting in cars glued to a hand held device for hours kept creeping into my mind. I was remembering all the time I spent playing jacks, and making things, like a telephone out of two tin cans. Interaction with friends was real time and in person. We rarely used telephones, but would run across the street to find a friend and conspire.
Although I'm not anti computer, I do think our children need more making opportunities. As an Illustrator I chose almost a coloring book look to my applique piece. The bow on the red-head's hair is 3-d. I fused two fabrics together, cut out the shape and put stitching around the edge and hand sewed it on. I outlined most of the fabric pieces in black like a coloring book would have been, and tried to use colors that reminded me of my youth. Crayola color. The back was done with lots and lots of scraps, that I save in color bins, and regularly use on my backs. What a fun theme!
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I think everyone enjoyed this theme and it brought out great variety, but I guess that always happens. I am interested in cartooning on quilts so I plan to study yours carefully. I made so many of those can and string telephones and was out in the street with kick the can and all over the neighborhood...so you can imagine how I enjoyed your piece.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful, whimsical rendition of the way we communicated as kids as opposed to today's generation. I agree that children need more time to create, and your piece says that so well. A very fun little quilt!
ReplyDeleteLois, welcome, welcome, again, to our group! WOW! What a superb addition you make. None of us, so far, have taken our quilts in this wonderful direction that highlights your drawing (cartooning) skills. And this quilt brought back such happy memories. I was so fortunate that, growing up, my two closest friends lived right across the street from me, and, yes, we never phoned each other--we just ran across the street and rang the doorbell. My younger sister's good friend lived next door, and I remember when we attempted the telephone out of two tin cans way to communicate! The string stretched from our upstairs bedroom window to Cindy's window next door, but for the life of me, I can't recall if we could hear one another on this telephone! Thanks for awakening this fun memory in me!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the welcoming words of encouragement.I have always wanted to try a coloring book piece and this gave me the opportunity to play with it. I think I am going to do 25 more of these, One for each letter of the alphabet, and combine them into an alphabet quilt. I will put a C on this one in the top right corner - People will think it is for can, but you will all know it is for communications. lol!
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvelous idea! Lately I've been contemplating what I would like to do as a series - in hopes of identifying some sort of style in my projects. Last night I'd been thinking about a color series using the same design technique. Love the cartoon effect you display in your quilt. Great piece!
DeleteThis one is fun and takes me back to my childhood.
ReplyDeleteLove your piece. Kids don't talk anymore. It is so different from when we grew up. Love the idea of a coloring book piece.
ReplyDeleteI too agonize over seeing children glued to a movie or a cell phone all the time. Car trips were to see new things and we also ran across the street to talk. Our phone was hard wired into the phone holder on the wall in the hallway and you had to stand there to talk so conversations were short, especially if my dad thought you were talking to a boy. Welcome to the group, loved your quilt.
ReplyDeleteThank you for so humorously depicting what I have thought for a very long time...children either don't have the time anymore / society does not support kids just being kids without the use of an electronic "toy". Children are given cell phones at 6 and 7 now, which is just wrong! Love your interpretation and your very whimsical coloring book, Crayola approach.
ReplyDeleteI like your interpetation Lois. This was such a fun thing to do as a child - your piece is so nostalgic of those simpler and innocent times. I love the expression of the little girl's face - she reminds me of a cartoon character but I can't place the name. Did you have any one in mind when you conceived the image?
ReplyDeleteNo - I just wanted a redhead, and the pig tails, and just played with some sketches until i got the facial expression. Which was hard to get, a lot of them looked like she was throwing up, instead of talking into a can. lol! But I think I got it right in the end.
ReplyDeleteI love this Lois. I thought of the tin cans we used to play with and also the game of telephone where one person gave a message to the next one down the line and at the end the message had morphed to something new. You really brought the fun of sending messages to your image. I enjoy your use of scraps on the back too.
ReplyDeleteI always loved the tin can phone's we made as kids. They really did work, but my friend across the road (I grew up in the country) couldn't figure out how to get a string that long to work. It needed to be pulled taught to hear clearly and with cars going down the gravel road it would be pretty silly. Best bet was to use the actual phone. Love the cartoon you drew and the fabric for the dress is awesome. Did you paint the fabric?
ReplyDeleteHi Lois ! Welcome to the group ... What a great addition you are !
ReplyDeleteTin cans ??? I think we used paper cups - styrofoam cups hadn't been invented yet :-D And try as we would, we just couldn't get those strings long enough to connect to my best friend's house two doors down ! Kick the can, Tag - you're it, Dodge Ball, Jacks (we used a golf ball instead of that little round one that came with the jacks!), Hula Hoops... And of course, there were always chores that had to be done ! Thanks for your lovely quilt that took all of us on a great trip down Memory Lane !
Lois, this is one of my favorite communication quilts. It indeed brings back so many memories of how we made our own toys in the "old" days. The redhead with pigtails is just the perfect touch! FUN!
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