Fi Webster's photos with the keyword: quilts

Mail-art file folder swap: I did some very strange for this project--something I never would've dreamed of doing in my whole life, before I became a mail/collage artist: I systemically massacred an entire book. Great Lakes, Great Quilts is a book about a museum of quilts located at Michigan State. I'd picked it up used, some months ago, and had set it aside as a source for collage materials. When I read in Polly's profile that she'd been a quilter for 25 years, I took the book and tore it into separate pages, picking 31 paper "quilts" to use in the project. What you see above are blocks from just a few of them, plus a small diagram about how to make a block. The "for Polly J." note explains how what she's seeing as the "outside" of the file folder is in fact the inside--telling her to open it up, remove all the contents (more on that later), and turn it inside-out.

What you see here is the opposite side from the address & postage, which, when the folder is opened and turned inside out, becomes the back of the inside, visible poking up above the front of the outside ( #3 ). These particular quilt blocks were on the front of the book I tore apart. They are a Crazy Pinwheel Quilt made by Edna Freshour circa 1860-70, from the silk lining materials for women's high-button boots. A boot factory had discontinued the boots, enabling Mrs. Freshour to pick up these high-end silks at cost. [If you haven't read #1 yet, see that page for more explanation.]