Andrea's Majestic quilt

 

Paris, 1967

14" x 11"

cotton, acrylic paint, organza

My first "Majestic" thoughts were of mountains, which I was not that interested in depicting.  I read many definitions and I'm not if I actually read "something that takes your breathe away", or if that was just my interpretation, so I may be "pushing" the meaning a bit here, but once I got that thought in my head, I couldn't let it go.

My first trip to Europe was in the summer of 1967.  I have seen much that has taken my breathe away, but seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time is still at the top of my list.

We traveled by ship and after 5 days at sea, disembarked in Le Havre, France and took the boat train ( they probably don't exist anymore ) into Paris.  It was dark by the time we arrived.  We found a taxi and after a much puzzled look from the driver as to where we wanted to go, ( we finally wrote down the name of the hotel for him ) we were on our way.  I don't know if anyone else in my family knew that our hotel was just one block from the Eiffel Tower, but I didn't and all of a sudden, there it was!  All golden and glowing.  

I was mesmerized and breathless at the same time.  I really couldn't believe I was actually seeing what I had only seen in books ( and never expected to see in person ).

I do hope  I've done a decent job of representing the view from the backseat of a Parisian taxi, looking up.  At least, that was my intent!

I used gold paint applied with a brush and sponge, in the basic shape of the tower, on black cotton.  Using tracing paper, I drew enough of the structural lines of the tower to make it recognizable and  stitched on top of those lines.  I then spent a very long time picking out all of the tracing paper (unfortunately, I used a heavy weight paper, which did not want to be easily removed ).  After cutting out the tower, I fused and stitched it on to a black background fabric that I splattered with gold and silver paint.  The partially "rolled down window" is organza.