New Day

Amy Ahlstrom

Silk and cotton quilt

Diptych; each panel 48" x 12" x 1.75"

2021

I am a conceptual textile artist creating narratives in quilt form. The common thread in my quilts is often text; I utilize words to convey meaning and as graphic elements. I design my quilts digitally, then make paper patterns and cut the images by hand. My quilts are made of silk and cotton pieces fused onto a single piece of fabric, then quilted using hand-guided machine quilting; I “draw” on the quilt with thread, moving the quilt under the needle to create intricate patterns. My latest works reference living with anxiety and depression amid social and political uprisings during a global pandemic. I created the diptych New Day at the end of 2020 to convey both the collective grief of the past year and the cautious ray of hope I felt with the arrival of 2021. I quoted the song Morning Has Broken since it is often played at funerals, yet also hints at the dawning of a new era. The quilts depict a woman from opposite angles shining her full spectrum of light amidst dark clouds; in the background, the rainbow colors hint at brighter days ahead after the rain.