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heller

Baby Quilts | 2021 - Present

A horizontal geometric ocean waves patterned quilt. The colors are blues for the ocean waves with glittering maroons and pinks, and surrounded by a double nine patch border or dark turquoises. Undulating quilted waves are made with a long arm machine.

My grandmother Sarah was a quilt maker and craftswoman. When her daughters started having children, she started making baby quilts for them, and eventually for all new children born into the family and neighborhood. Each different, and progressively expressive of her own individual style, the quilts somehow also reflected the unknowable quality of each individual's new life. Networks and generations of close and distant cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, and friends are connected by these first gifts of life.

In April 2021, anticipating the first new baby in our family since her death, I learned to quilt. I fell in love with the physicality of textiles and the opportunity to apply my art making processes in a new medium. I feel connected to my grandmother through our shared responsibility to create for others. Below are just a few of the 16 baby quilts I have gifted to loved ones. Baby quilts are an opportunity to show love and also play with the medium through these smaller sketches.

Nine white Jewish people gather around two quilts and smile. From the left: My brother Jacob, my mom Paula, Rae with a short brown pixie hair cut, Michelle my brothers wife, Joe who has long brown hair (my sisters husband), Hannah my sister, my dad, my grandmother Lola, and my husband Steve. We are holding Charlie's quilt and also a quilt my Grandmother Sarah made a baby.

This quilt uses patterned fabric in pinks, purples, and yellows. A very busy compositions of circles and checkers! The vibe is maximalist.

This quilt has various bright pinks and peaches and blues, all in checkers or half square triangles, and also quarter square triangles. There is then a blue two inch border around the improv style center, than another border with more nine patch checkers. The vibe is super fun and bright.

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