This quilt was designed and created by the following people:
At the top left, is the ring leader of the Clandestine Quilt Caper. Susan did the Empress (her card, definitely!). She originally got the idea after Christmas of 95 and ran with it. She emailed a bunch of my friends and asked if anyone wanted to do a friendship quilt for me. (Please note that she did all this while living in Russia. Is this woman incredibly organized, or what?) Just coincidentally, because of the number people who responded there are 13 squares in the quilt. Susan gave out suggestions for which card everyone should take and they all did a breathtaking job. Everyone presented me with the quilt on New Year's Eve of 1996 so this quilt was over a year in the making.
The next card on the top is Temperance. Susan's mom, Phyllis (better known as "Mom" Taylor) did that one. She's everyone's mom and cares a great deal for all of us. She and her whole family have really made me feel like I have a family here in DC since my family is in Michigan.
The next card was done by Michelle Taylor, Susan's sister-in-law, best friend and all-around awesome woman. She did the Lovers. What it is, is a Lovers' Square. The photos in it are of Loren and Susan, Michelle and Andy (Susan's brother), Hugh and Phyllis (Susan's awesome folks) and Rich and me. Here's MHR's version.
The next card at the top right is our dear, incredibly talented friend Eryq as the Magician. Unfortunately, my scan of these cards does not do anyone's work justice. So, if you'd like to see a really good scan of this card, go to Eryq's home page. Take a good look at the painting and you'll see some interesting stuff in it. First of all, normally, the Magician has an infinity symbol over his head. Well, Eryq is a master programmer and the symbol over his head is actually the binary symbol. Also, the floating wand that he has to his left is made up of the other three suits, the cup, the sword and the pentacle. Here's MHR's version.
The nex t card down from Eryq is my friend Lara's version of the Queen of Wands. Everyone says, when they see it, that she definitely did herself in the card. That is, until they see the actual Queen of Wands in the Hanson-Roberts deck, which is the deck upon which the quilt was based. So, though it may look like she did herself, it's probably only because it's her card (although, she did appliqu? purple velvet on the card which is definitely her). Lara loves kitties (she and Dan currently have seven). Not satisfied with the lion and the one kitty in the card, Lara added another one (black) in the back.
The next card was done by our friend Evan, who swears he can't sew. I don't believe him, do you? He sewed, by hand mind you, the three of pentacles. Each strip of fabric that he used has fruits and vegetables and other symbols of fertility, the harvest, and the earth on it.
The next card down is our friend Deborah's mystical, incredible version of the Star. The woman in it is bathed in light and water from the stars. She is part of both the land and the sea sharing both within herself. The panel is just incredible. Deborah, in addition to being a PhD, is a creative, astounding, awesome woman with music talents, not the least of which is sewing and quilting. Here's MHR's version.
The next card over to the left is our friend Tinabear's version of the High Priestess. She put all sorts of symbology into this panel. The color of the priestess is teal (my color), and the moons are waxing crescent (white) full (red) and waning crescent (black). The priestess is also standing in one of my favorite positions, just like the Nile River Goddess.
The next card was done by another dear friend (is there a pattern to this?) Theresa. Susan gave her the Queen of Cups, and she really did an incredible job. It's better than the original (no offense intended to Mary Hanson-Roberts). The Queen of Cups in the deck is normally blond (or very light brown-haired) with brown eyes, and Theresa made her dark-haired and blue-eyed like I am. What an honor. Take a look at the sewing work on the face of the queen. That was an incredibly difficult task and she did a fantastic job. She also added the incredible fabrics in rich and lovely blues.
The next card is done by my sweetie, Rich. He is The Fool so he painted himself and our dog, Athena, walking off into the Chasm. If you look carefully, he painted faces into the rockface, and as he is now a major comp uter geek (I mean that in the nicest way possible), instead of a little bundle, his satchel is a briefcase. And the Fool is wearing primary colors and that bears some special feeling for both of us.
The next card up is our friend Cynthia's rendition of the Queen of Pentacles. She used lots of reds and berries and flowers and really captured the spirit of the Queen of the earth suit. As a matter of fact, she captured it twice because the first one she did and mailed to Susan's mom, got lost in the mail and she had redo the whole panel from scratch. She's awesome. She owns her own clothing business (medieval and renaissance clothing) called the Purple Unicorn, and if you ever go to Ren Fests around the country, chances are you'll run into her or someone wearing one of her pieces. Here's MHR's version.
The next card up is the Two of Rods by Susan's husband Loren. It's the perfect card for him to do. He really wants to know the world as intimately as the figure in the card does. They took this picture on the banks of a river in St. Petersburg, Russia. At the time Loren worked in Russia and so when he made the globe, he put Russia on the side that faced the camera. They found the wand and decorated it with flowers and then superimposed it, with the magic o f computers, on the other side. Loren, apparently, was a bit nervous and embarrassed to be standing out there decked out in hat with globe and wand in hand, but Susan took a wonderful photo and then input it into the quilt just beautifully.
Now we come to the centerpiece of this wonderful piece. Our friend, Eryq, again put his incredible talents towards creating me as Strength. This whole quilt thing was a surprise so he had to work from a photograph of me. Just as he did in the Magician, Eryq, inserted a number of additional symbols into the painting. First, Strength is my card, and Eryq painted me in it. That was amazing. But, he also knows that the Ing (the two X's that look like they are one on top of the other) is my rune and so he painted that as part of the card. (He also made an incredible opalescent stained glass bo x for me that sits as the centerpiece for my altar, and in that he incorporated the rune as well.) Then, knowing my love for opals, he added the rainbow around the Ing. Next, if you look carefully, you can see Eryq's symbol of my undying love for music; the embroidery on the gauntlet I'm wearing is actually music notes. Also, the embroidery on the bodice is more Ings. He also added the triple moon necklace, which is just gorgeous, and I'm going to ask my friend Polly, who is an amazing silversmith, to make me one with a moonstone center.
I'm so honored that my friends worked so hard to create this quilt. I look at it every night before I go to sleep and feel truly blessed.
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