I have the biggest LOVE for Barbra Streisand. Her voice is like silk and her talent is undeniable. There is no other performer, in my eyes, who is more deserving of being captured in over 3300 one inch finished squares of fabric.
I got the idea to make this 5ft x 7ft wall hanging quilt of Babs in 2018 after seeing a picture of a quilted Ab Lincoln in a magazine that had placed at QuiltCon in 2017. It inspired me to think about colour and value and fabric and how portraits could be created from these elements. It also forced me to think about other important things like copyright. After finding the original picture in a Google search, I emailed the photographer (Steven Shapiro), who took the photograph of Ms. Streisand in 1974, to ask permission to use his photograph as the source for my quilt. Within 24 hours he responded to say yes. That was a pretty exciting moment for me and likely as close to Babs as I'll ever get. Although I did see her perform live at the ACC in Toronto in 2007. That was pretty amazing!
Using a black and white photograph is a great way to learn about value and quickly makes your realize that colour really is insignificant; value is what creates the image. So, with that knowledge in mind and using only solid fabrics that I had on hand in my stash, Ralph and I set out to design a pattern for The Quilted Funny Girl.
First we ordered all the solids from lightest to darkest (I think there were 24 of them). Then I decided on a finished size based on the dimensions of the original photograph and we established a finished block size: 5 inch x 5 inch. To achieve the level of details necessary for her features, those 5 inch squares were mostly made up of 25 one inch finished squares, with some of those made up of one inch half square triangles or two half inch rectangles. Lots of cutting and lots of piecing. Ralph used Adobe Illustrator to place a grid, to scale, over the original photograph and then used the eyedropper tool to drop in colour based on its value. From this 8.5 x 11 picture, I set out to piece her. 100 hours later, A Star [was] Born.
This quilt will likely be my claim to fame and that is perfectly fine with me. It is one of the very first art quilts I made and made very early in my quilting career. It has been rejected from the National Juried Show at Quilt Canada but was featured in a little CBCNL segment on me called "What are you at?", hung in my exhibition at the Craft Council of NL in September 2018, and has had many requests to be purchased. I am still waiting for Barbra Streisand to acknowledge it (I've tweeted, Instagrammed and Facebooked it to her several times lol) but she has yet to respond. One day, I hope I have a room with a wall large enough to hang her. For now, she is safely stored away, like a watercolour memory of the way we were.
Love Barbra (her voice is like buttah…) and loved this quilted tribute since I saw it hanging downtown in 2019! I remember trying to figure out how to sneak it out of the store…LOL! A true work of art! Are your products online only? Are you doing classes these days?
Bella – love this !! You are an artist and I sure hope Barbara responds to your tweets !!
Corey, your turn of phrase(s) was delightful to read as you described the making of your quilt and the absolute adoration you have for your subject. She is beautiful. I love her too. And thank you for the tip about the eye dropper.
It’s stunning!
Absolutely the finest quilt I have ever seen! As Barbra is also my favourite singer of all time, this was pure joy to witness! A million thank yous for making and sharing your brilliance!