Mother & Daughter Combine Their Talents

To Create A Special Family Heirloom

Elizabeth O’Connell of Sandy Hook was honored recently when one of her quilts was selected for inclusion in World Quilt Show — New England.

An internationally diverse event for the world of quilting and textile arts, the event was presented at the Radisson Hotel & Convention Center in Manchester, N.H., August 17–20.

Mrs O’Connell’s quilt, “The Art of Grace — A 3 Yr Old,” featured a series of pictures Mrs O’Connell’s 3-year-old daughter, Grace, had drawn to represent her family (“fambly”). Mrs O’Connell spent eight months on and off, making the king-size quilt, which was entered in the competition’s Innovative Category.

Mrs O’Connell and her husband, Terry, were delighted with their daughter’s artwork and decided to display it.

“Since paper is such a fragile item over time, I decided to create a more permanent way to preserve it,” Mrs O’Connell wrote for an artist’s statement at the show. “I started to make this as a Christmas surprise for my husband, but he finally received it the following Father’s Day.”

The quilt measures 108 by 108 inches. It is machine quilted in a “complete freeform random pattern,” according to Mrs O’Connell. It features iron-on appliqué with satin stitching on the edges. Crazy quilting fills in spaces between the blocks.

Most blocks are embellished, especially the ones depicting the family members. Grace helped determine how embellishments were used.

Because the quilt is Grace’s view of the people closest to her, Mrs O’Connell decided to also incorporate the word family into the quilt’s design, “and since this is [Grace’s] view of family I included her pronunciation, fambly.”

According to Terry O’Connell, many of his wife’s friends and family are quilters. “The Art of Grace” is just the second quilt Mrs O’Connell has done. “The Art of Grace” was initially done just for fun, and it was Mrs O’Connell’s Aunt Rose who suggested the family enter it into competition.

World Quilt Show — New England offered an exhibition of quilts, plus more than 30 programs, lectures and workshops. Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine sponsored The World Quilt Panel & Forum; the festival itself was presented by Mancuso Show Management. The four-day event lived up to its name, representing quilters from around the globe. Best of World went to Yoshiko Miyamoto from Japan. Other quilts were done by quilters in the United States, as well as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Winning quilts will now go to the World Quilt Competition in Chicago in November, but the O’Connell family — which also includes Caitlin O’Connell — isn’t disappointed that “The Art of Grace” isn’t going to Illinois. The quilt is back where it belongs, at home with its fambly.