SAQA Trunk Show

Design based, with permission, on a photo taken by Rita Crane. 

SAQA, The Studio Art Quilter's Association, is sponsoring a "trunk show" of quilts that will travel the country and the world for the next three years.  This is my entry, titled Requiem for 42,000 Trees.  

The piece celebrates the beauty of the 42,000 plane trees that line the Canal du Midi.  Unfortunately, the trees are infected with a fatal virus, and will all have to be cut in the coming years.  Some people fear the death of the trees will affect the canal's status as a World Heritage Site.

I've wanted to make a quilt featuring the ill-fated trees of the Canal du Midi for some time.  My own photos of the canal left me uninspired,  but then I saw a photo taken by Rita Crane of the canal in winter, and knew that was how I wanted to depict the trees. 

This piece is only 7x10-inches, as required by the SAQA show.  The miniature  size was my greatest challenge, as a lot of the techniques I usually use, such as turned edge applique, simply wouldn't work on such a small scale. 

Tomorrow, this one goes in the mail, and I either go back to my rowboat piece, or start a new project.  I'm thinking of making a large version of Requiem just for the pleasure of working on the trees in a scale that I can see.