I have a dream, where stars are frolicking in the night sky.
It’s a recurring dream. I’m outside at night. I look up, and stars are chasing each other across the sky, turning somersaults, and tumbling around in crazy spirals. They’re playing. Like I said before, they’re frolicking.
The dream makes me happy, and I’m glad it comes back from time to time.
Dreams give us a glimpse into our unconscious. Since humans seem to share a collective unconscious, I think—I hope—that art inspired by good dreams resonates with people on an unconscious level and affects their waking lives.
I’m pretty sure that Constant Comets was influenced by my dream. Other things added to the inspiration. Doilies with star or star-like motifs play into my vision of a night sky. I don’t know what it is about doilies crocheted with white and golden-yellow, but they look to me like blazing celestial bodies.
Then there’s the combination of royal blue and golden yellow and white. It’s a delicious combination—one of my favorites. Luckily, my stash had a lot of royal blue bits of fabric at the time when Constant Comets got underway.
To get a feel for how my doily comets would move across the sky, I made a digital sketch, starting with photos of the doilies I was going to use. I measured each doily and made sure the digital measurements matched the real ones. That way the proportions in the sketch were more-or-less accurate. (I use Adobe Photoshop Elements. It has all the features I need, but is much more affordable than the full Adobe Creative Suite.)
After arranging the doily pictures, I roughly sketched in the comet tails. When you’re working on something up close, it can be difficult to see the bigger picture. The sketch gave me an idea of the bigger picture, but I wasn’t obligated to copy it exactly.
It was time to make the quilt top. When I’m trying to use up fabric scraps, I first patch together some medium-sized blocks. I lay them out on the floor, within the desired measurements of the quilt top. Then I fill in the empty spaces with more patches.
When the top was done, I started sewing on doily comets, and I couldn’t wait to start giving them tails!
Constant Comets has been exhibited as part of the Celebrate Doilies art quilt show since the summer of 2017. It will be in the show “Pieces of Us,” through June 25, 2021, in Stephenville, Texas. Details here.
My favorite memory about Constant Comets was when Celebrate Doilies was in Comanche, Texas, at the 4 North Event Center on the town square. That was when I first met Pat Reese, a fellow textile artist. We became friends immediately. Pat gave me a wonderful compliment about Constant Comets. “It makes me want to sing,” she said.
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Find Constant Comets in TextileFusion’s Market. The wall hanging measures 39 x 46 inches.