The Whitney Young High School 50^th Anniversary Design Started as an Art Quilt Banner

I took the drawing and made an art quilt banner first. There are a lot of banners in the gymnasium of Whitney Young High School. I felt it would be befitting to make the quilt look more like a banner.

The background was orange. The capital “W” and capital “Y” were blue. The number “50” had to be in either yellow or gold as I had been instructed. On the border of the quilt was dolphin fabric. The back of the quilt also had dolphin fabric and fabric resembling water. It looked like there was a school of dolphins swimming from the back of the quilt to the front of the quilt and into the orange background with the blue capital  “W,” the blue capital “Y,” and the gold number  “50.”  I received a ton of help from one of my sewing circles, Quilter’s Plus, from a woman who worked for years in a furniture store. She helped me center the letters and numbers.

The quilt was fun to make, but I felt there was something missing.

The Hubbard Street dance troupe gives art workshops around the city of Chicago. They suggest, as did my art quilt teacher, Sheila Frampton Cooper, writer Elizabeth Gilbert and late science fiction writer, Octavia Butler, to change your artistic medium or genre if you find yourself stuck or stymied in a project.

I felt the design would transfer from drawing to fabric to fiber quite easily, making a ton of artistic movement forward as a yarn bombing.