TERRACED GARDENS
Elizabeth Gurrier
Hollis, New Hampshire
1988
56 x 47 inches
Unbleached cotton muslin, textile pigments, silk thread, polyester fiber batting and fill
Hand painted and stuffed; hand and machine quilted
Note: This work is signed by the artist.

Although it appears pieced and appliquéd , this is in fact a wholecloth quilt; the top was hand painted on a single piece of unbleached cotton muslin that was then stuffed, backed, bound, and quilted.

Elizabeth Gurrier was an avid and accomplished gardener who graced her home with flowers of all kinds. Flowers inspired many of her hand colored quilts.

"Gurrier uses Createx textile pigments, developed by Color Craft, which are liquid, water-based textile pigments known for their soft hand, lightfastness, and color intensity. She never uses color directly from the bottle, and she reduces the intensity without changing the consistency by using extender.

"She avoids using black and white but likes grays and complementary colors. 'I’m having fun playing with the colors, putting in the extender, washing it all out, and then putting in just binder,' she says. 'Paints are unpredictable. Using them is a learning process.'

"Gurrier keeps a notebook of color swatches and formulas so she can build her color knowledge as each piece progresses. However, she mixes new colors for each piece. 'After I have finished a piece, I dump out all the paints so I don’t repeat,' she says.

"As she paints on the pigment, she follows her sketch lines exactly with the same precision for which her stitchery is known. 'Sometimes as I’m painting I think, Gee, that gradation would be nice. And then I think, That’s paint. I want the gradation to come in the quilting.'"

—Meg Currie, Threads Magazine

$3500

Contact Robert Shaw for more information or to purchase