Fall From Grace

Fall From Grace


Fall From Grace

December 2001

36 X 36 inches


Cotton fabrics; machine pieced; machine quilted.
This quilt began in response to the spectacularly gorgeous and colorful autumn weather we had in New York in 2001, which was terribly overshadowed by the skeletal remains of the World Trade Center disaster. I felt we were given this beautiful fall by the grace of nature; but the sense of vulnerability that follows such a horrible event constituted our "fall from grace". Time had truly changed for us; we had turned some kind of corner and had to face a different future. I began with a traditional Islamic screen pattern (which Margit Echols called: "Star of the East" in her Magic Triangles pattern for quilts), and saw how this fundamental pattern could be transformed into organic, growing trees, or into the horror of destruction. There is a lone mourning dove on the left side; a bird that usually mates for life, bereft of her lost partner. The purple sunset fabric is hand-dyed by Caryl Bryer Fallert; the blue sky is my own hand-dyed fabric, and the rest of the quilt is commercially available batiks and Jinny Beyer fabrics.

Photographed for the New York Times, "Portraits of Grief" page, December 22, 2001

Included in "Time Squared: Art Quilts by the Manhattan Quilters Guild", a touring exhibit premiering in Houston at International Quilt Festival, October 2002. Complete exhibit can be seen at www.quiltart.com/timesquared
Quilt design Copyright © 2001, Jeri Riggs