The Eye Patch Quilt: Cousin!

Lilypad quilt by Marcia Karlin.

Last month I had the opportunity to visit Laura Bernstein, and on top of a fabulous, spiritual visit, I got to see the quilt that started it all.  Marcia Karlin made this quilt of lily pads that Laura purchased from the Chicago Botanical Gardens show and now hangs on her wall.  When we were looking for a textile artist to take on our assignment, it was at Laura's recommendation that we looked to Marcia.

Quilt details:

Lilypad detail.

Lilypad detail.

Close-up of southeast corner detail.

View of overall quilt, estimated 4 by 6 feet.

The Eye Patch Quilt: Lasting Impressions

Eye Patch Quilt (note: text on fabric circled in yellow).

The quilt contains more than patches and lenses.  Marcia used photo-sensitive inks to transfer words written on transparencies to the fabric.  Some of a saying came from background material we gave her: mom's book, favorite passages, newspaper articles.  Just when I think I've found them all, sometimes I spot another one, like an ethereal I Spy.

Poem by Laura Bernstein, also see Celebrate Weirdness post.

Somewhere between a diamond and a coal smudge.

Pain is the crackling of the shell that encloses our understanding.

I am still here.

I glow in the dark, a reminder of the days of radiation.

There's one more, "Best I ever tasted."  Do you see it?

The Eye Patch Quilt: Cloisonne Lenses

The Eye Patch Quilt (note: three cloisonne pieces circled in yellow).

Mom turned to making patches around 1962 and shelved her prosthetic eye.  She continued to research alternatives and by the late nineties a few more options were presented to her.  One option she followed up on was to have an artist make a pair of glasses that could fit a stained glass or cloisonne drop in for the right lens.  The artist made a beautiful side panel out of silver that hung off the frame's temple.  The artist also made six cloisonne lenses that could be switched in or out of the frames depending on her style or mood.

When we talked to Marcia Karlin about making the quilts, it was her idea to bring other objects into her work.  Marcia divided the lenses and incorporated them into both quilts, three lenses each.

Close ups of the lenses:

Close up of lens seen in upper middle left of photo at top of the page.

This one is from my brother's quilt.

Lens from upper right corner in photo at top of post.

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.