Stuffed quilt with engineered digitally-printed piecing, hand silkscreen printing, embroidery, indigo and mx-reactive dye processes

~90"x90"

April 2018​

​

Ramblings 1944 investigates how we attempt to reconstruct or relearn histories that are either marginal or suppressed. The engineered digital print piecing forms an image of Topaz internees signing yearbooks in 1945, the last year of the camp's duration. The fully pieced quilt face was then hand-silkscreen-printed with digitized samples of yearbook signatures discovered in my grandfather's copy of the 1944 edition of Topaz High School's yearbook Ramblings. When my family recently unearthed the yearbook, we discovered through reading the signatures that my grandfather had been the class president of Topaz High his senior year of high school. 

 

The border of the quilt was hand-embroidered, then overdyed with indigo.  The embroidered text is the lyrics to the Topaz High School Alma Mater song, which reads as follows:

 

 All Hail Topaz High School,

A torch that our paths will light,

​

Our colors the green and gold

Shall symbolize our might,

​

From far and wide we've gathered 

And made now into one,

​

We'll cherish this our Alma Mater 

which will not go unsung

​

All Hail Topaz High School,

We'll leave thee with spirits fine,

​

And hope that we will prove to be

Ever worthy of thine,

​

Our steps for long you've guided,

And now without a fear

​

We're proud to leave a part of you

Our Alma Mater dear.

​

​