The Eye Patch Quilt, Part 1



The Eye Patch Quilt, In memory of Janet E. Trever 1943-1999 by Marcia Karlin

You may have noticed from time to time pictures of mom's patches.  She made thousands throughout her life that matched her outfits.  People always ask where she got the material from--well kids, in the 80s there was a huge fad called "shoulder pads."  Should this dreadful fad be repeated call your one-eyed friends as they made perfect fodder for matching fabric.  She also turned to pockets or hems.  These strategies rendered a perfect match, but of course she shopped at fabric stores to fill in the rest of her collection.

Before she died, mom wrote in her will that she wanted the patches to be made into a quilt that could be passed down in the family.  She also wrote where each of her possessions should go, and that she wanted her book published, and she wanted me to have kids...so you can imagine the to-do list I had after she died.  The quilt, however, came easily compared to the rest.

Close friend Laura Bernstein recommended a local artist who made a Lily Pad quilt that hangs in her house.  She helped us track down the artist who we approached with our project.

Marcia Karlin was a godsend...and I've never used that word before in print.  From her own release:

My commitment to quilt making as an art form is rooted in the literal and metaphoric triumph over fragmentation inherent in constructing coherent and compelling images from diverse materials and techniques...My work emphasized the resonance of lived experience and the healing power of the creative process; through constructing complex, layered images, I discover and communicate the mystery and meaning in individual histories.

We wanted to tell mom's story through her patches, but Marcia opened our minds to other points of inspiration and beauty.  A description of her quilt "Blueprints" captures the essence of what she brought to the table: 

Cyanotype print image from mom's Eye Patch Quilt.

[Images] include CT scans of my daughter's brain, DNA tracings, excerpts from medical reports, fragments of flora and garden scenes, and an unused block from a series of quilts depicting lily ponds.  The poem "Blueprints" is incorporated into the quilt, as well as lines from other poems I've written.  Finally, the piece is embellished with talismans--a charm reminiscent of the sugar skulls used in Mexican Day of the Dead observances; a clock face to represent the passage of time; and a hand to symbolize the creative process.

Two 3x3 foot quilts were made.  One hangs in my house in St. Augustine, and the other hangs in my brother's house in Denver.  Mine is featured at the top of this entry, my brother's is here below:

Andy's Eye Patch Quilt that hangs in Denver.

My brother and I divided the patches to start (okay, he picked the one mom wore to his wedding and I picked 100 I HAD to have).  Marcia then incorporated them along with other mom memento-facts, such as stained glass lenses for specialty glasses, favorite phrases, lines from her book, and DeGrazia's "A Beautiful Burden" images.

Parts 2-5 will feature more of the memento-facts listed above, but I wanted to leave space here to promote Marcia and her other works.  We recently reconnected, and while she's not showing any work presently, I look forward to seeing more from this amazing artist.

Portion of Sarah's Eye Patch Quilt.