Introduction
I actually learned to do art pictorial quilts with this series when I joined my wonderful teacher Mary Walter and her band of quilters. She was engaged with the James McNeill Whistler Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts, to put together an interpretation of different works of the American painter and Lowell native. I joined Mary’s group as we all gave our own interpretation of the same work. The differences in interpretation were as fascinating as the individuals in the group. It was also very special to be doing these Whistler quilts in the artist’s house.
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Street Scene at Saverne
For this quilt, Mary wanted us to render the quilt in monochromatic tones. This turned out to be very challenging, as the differences in form and structures had to be represented by a hue in the same family. The original work by Whistler was an etching that he had done after visiting the city of Saverne in Alsace, as he was walking across Europe.
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Woman Shelling Peas
In his painting, Whistler represented a very fair woman shelling peas in an English garden. I chose a more tropical setting in my interpretation, with lush vegetation and warm colors.
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Color Study
What I especially enjoyed about doing this quilt was in fact its lack of pictorial structure. This quilt was based on a color study that Whistler executed as he was designing a room for a wealthy British client. It is with this quilt and its open nature that I first started to delve into the shadings and textures of the fabric to guide me in stitching. A technique that I have used ever since.