Cursing Neptune
I am working on a new series. The series is going to be a social commentary involving statues and monuments. While looking at artist opportunities coming up, I saw one that interested me from the Virginia Quilt Museum. They were organizing an exhibit about Virginia’s history.
The roundabout way an idea is born
Years ago, before I worked on my Quilting Frederick series, I had an art problem. My problem was that I couldn’t develop a consistent style or subject because I kept jumping from thing to thing depending on what I felt I wanted to experiment with that day. Even though I was having fun, I was getting frustrated professionally and my artist career was going nowhere. I knew what the problem was but I needed a push to keep my self-discipline. I started working with a mentor from Studio Art Quilt Associates, Sue Polansky. She kept me on track and I was able to finish my series of Frederick quilts and got so many opportunities from that that I decided that I’m only working on series from now on. One of the best advice Sue gave me was that if I’m feeling the urge to deviate from the series that I’m working on and go in another direction, think how can I adapt that new idea into what I’m working on. Instead of abandoning the current course and work on something completely different, take that idea germinating in my head and find a way to integrate it into my series.
Returning to my Virginia story… I started thinking about how can I apply my statues idea to Virginia history? Now that I’m thinking about it more, there was an obvious answer to that question, Charlottesville. But that didn’t come to mind. Probably for the better because I don’t need any more negativity in my life at the moment. Also, most of the time, the obvious answer is not the best and more interesting one. (I do reserve the right to make a Charlottesville statues quilt in the future… ) Anyway, see how my mind gets easily sidetracked.
One of the most memorable statues I remember in Virginia is the Statue of King Neptune in Virginia Beach.
Construction Starts
August 2024
I started making a King Neptune quilt. At first I thought of having the statue coming out of the wall but I soon figured out that my 3D sewing skills are not that good yet. So 2D it is. I usually don’t make people and I was having fun with this one.
September 2024
Quilts take a long time to make and there is a lot of repetitive work involved so they give you a lot of time to think. While working on it, I started to think that there wasn’t a lot of history in my quilt. I also remembered that one of the most curious things in my trip to Virginia Beach was the “No Cursing” signs. I did some research on the signs. It is a pretty amusing story.
It turns out that there was an 18th century law that made cursing illegal. In the 1990’s, to make the ocean front more family-friendly, they put up signs reminding people that it was against the law to curse.
The signs came down in 2019 because of protests that the law wasn’t enforceable, it went against the first amendment and it made the area less welcoming. The signs were auctioned off and the proceeds were donated to the local police.
The &%!! quest begins
Now the question is how to incorporate the cursing signs. Like I said before, sometimes the most obvious answer is not the best answer.
I thought of another idea. Why not try stenciling the cursing symbols on the background? Nevermind that I have never done that before and I’m going to do it on a finished quilt that has to be submitted to an exhibit soon. No pressure.
October 2024
I bought a set of stencils with the alphabet and started my new adventure! The result had me cursing. I ruined an almost-finished quilt! Maybe I set myself for failure. Maybe I should have tried it on a scrap of fabric before I tried it on the quilt. Maybe I shouldn’t have use paint that was 10 years old. In summary, the cursing symbols looked like !@#$ 💩. But if there is one thing that quilters are good at is resourcefulness.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again
The entry deadline was fast approaching!
I had NOT spent three months of my life making a quilt that looked like 💩 and not finishing it in time to enter it into the exhibit for which I started to make it in the first place!
In quilting, the best way to cover your mistakes is applique. I took the stencils, traced the same symbols on fabric and appliqued them on top of the 💩. It looked better but not all the 💩 was covered and the fabric I chose for the appliques was very similar to the sky fabric. I took a paint pen, covered the rest of the 💩 and this outline gave the contrast needed to differentiate the letters from the sky.
I finished it in time to enter the exhibit but after all the difficulties to make it work, I didn’t have high hopes to getting accepted. Also, don’t know why but for this exhibit they made available a list of the concepts other artists were using for their quilts. They were all very important events in the history of the state. I thought that the message of my quilt was kind of silly. I am also recovering from the big let down of not getting into Quilt National and don’t get me started on the US presidential election. To my surprise, I made it in!
Cursing Neptune
Neptune will be cursing at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Dayton, VA from July 4, 2026 - December 20, 2026 in the Stitching Together History exhibit which looks like it is going to be a very interesting exhibit.
