The Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos) is a south-of-the-border festival to celebrate and respect the lives of loved ones who have passed on before us. This is not a gloomy festival, it's a party, with the dearly departed as the main guests. Held from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 it is an occaTsion of happy memories, celebration of the cycle of life and, basically, a positive way to find closure.

The focus of this challenge is to create a quilt / fabric art that is inspired by the Dia de los Muertos. This should be your interpretation and include items of remembrance that pertain to the person/people/loved one you are honoring.( It is these personal details that will make the quilt heartfelt). There are many traditional elements that are used for the 'ofrenda' (altars) but the only one that is a requirement for this challenge is "happy skeletons" (happy because they are being remembered).

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This piece is dedicated to my Grandmother and her sisters who were all dedicated card players. I left off the whiskey glasses and cigarettes stained with very red lipstick that they were also fond of as I had originally planned because they looked a bit like an indictment vs a celebration. They were a brassy bunch.

Cotton and polyester chiffon. Crayon transfer,
raw-edge applique, and piecing.

Marriage is a rite of passage. The bride is on the threshold of a new life, shedding her independent single identity to build up a more complicated new one. She may not like all that being a wife has meant in the past, and yet she chooses to carefully reinvent that tradition rather than surrender to it or abandon it. She does not know what trials await her; she does not know who she will become. She may feel vulnerable and strangely alone, yet she faces her future with faith and a full, radiant heart.

Through the Gate Comes Transformation
January 2004
26 ½" x 32½”
detail

There is a gate that lies between the living and the after life. A mere thread separates the dimensions. We reach out to those we lost and yet they to reach out to us!

My art is a mere reflection of nature itself - a reflection of past lives or that of this life. Experiences and emotions flourishing in symbolic colors, Mother Nature uses daily in her vast palate. Inspiration can come alone or along with any combination of creative sources. I look at art in all it’s mediums as both a process in which to work through emotions, extenuating circumstances or the shadows of emotions carried through reincarnation and visual appreciation. Through the visual symbolism a conclusion or statement is presented in each piece. All my works are a combination of the basic elements of nature and the technology of the present, radiating its own level of energy in a kaleidoscope of color that empowers lively interplay, creating compositional depth. Not all creations are visual successes to everyone. Knowing transition is going on in the process of the completion of the journey, the most unappreciated visual pieces speak emotionally the loudest. Therefore, the best work.
Celebration of the cycle of life Janus
El Dia de los Muertos

Techniques used: Hand painted organic sheeting, commercial hand-dyed cotton, stamped, machine appliquéd, machine quilted and embellished. Glass, plastic and bone beads; turquoise fetishes; turquoise and shell heishei; paper; milagros and other religious charms; shrink plastic; coins; metal trailer medallion.

My family celebrated the lives of my deceased parents at Papago Park in Phoenix in 1999. Because they spent many winters in Arizona and Mexico, the culture became important to all of us. Embellishments are symbols of their lives and travels, especially the little yellow plastic bananas. They represent their devotion to a healthy lifestyle which enabled them to live long and rich lives. The title comes from a line in the poem I wrote for the occasion which is on the back of the quilt. The quilt hangs from a piece of sahuaro skeleton.

I have always been fascinated with Mexican art and rituals. My son was married to a Mexican woman who gifted me with many wonderful art objects and taught me much about the culture. So when the Day of the Dead challenge came up, I had to participate. I had seen a poster at the hospital when I had x-rays done that was an e-ray of a hand done in several color ways, using complements and knew I wanted to try that for my challenge. I scanned an x-ray of a skull and played with it in Photoshop. I printed the resulting skulls on fabric using my HP printer and bubble-jet treated fabric. I fused the skulls to their complements.

The four figures represent my maternal grandmother, my mother and two of my aunts — all of them had a profound influence on me. I embellished each section with beads and milagros representing their specific traits and importance in my life. Amazingly, I had the fabulous border fabric in my stash. However, the most wonderful part of doing this project was reconnecting with these four women and remembering what each of them had meant to me during my formative years and beyond.

Anne Copeland
Lomita, CA

I wanted to make a Day of the Dead quilt as a way of dealing with all the little animals I have loved and lost, and the loss of my parents in the last couple of years. Although I didn't end up putting the pets images on the piece, or those of my parents, it really helped me to feel as though I was celebrating their lives on this piece. It is a happy piece,
full of color and aliveness. But at the same time, it has a sense of darkness to it with all the skeletons, the lizards and the tortoise and some of the things on the shrine. The butterflies at the top speak to me of transformation from this stage of life to the next one. I used a papel picado (cut paper) edge like the real Mexican cut paper works.

Cotton, printed and embossed mulberry paper, linen thread, and plastic, shell and wood buttons. Manipulated photo transfer images

My husband Carlos is from Lima, Peru, where almost all of his family still resides. The first Davila in Peru was a pirate in the late 1600s - early 1700s who raided the port city of Callao. My piece brings this forefather to life with an adaptation of a couple of Posada's engravings, and an etching of an old Spanish galleon. Avast, yo ho and really bad eggs!

OMEGA 3 BOO-gie is created with my own hand-dyed, hand-painted and hand-colored fabrics along with commercial fabrics.

The "movin' celebration" on the ocean floor is highlighted by a bright red densely quilted frame. The quilting in the ocean image is purposely spare to emphasize the movement of the water, steamers and balloons caused by the sonic blast of the music.

The Great Kahuna Tuna hosts the annual Omega 3 Boo-gie which celebrates the good works fish have done by providing Omega 3 oils to the cholesterol saturated world --- Balloons, Streamers, Music---
" Let the Celebration Begin!"

El Dia de Los Muertos is a celebration in the Mexican culture to honor those loved ones who have died. In the last five years both my parents and a dear friend have passed on to the next life. This quilt is in memory of them, to celebrate their life rather than mourn their deaths. When I pass on I hope those who love me will dance as well.

I have always been facinated by Frida Kahlo. The centerpiece is a watercolor that I painted. I then reduced pictures of Frida to fit on the wall and on the alter. The watercolor was then transferred to fabric. I used commercial fabrics to frame the piece. It is my tribute to Frida. On Day of the Dead, if she ever appears to me, we'll eat apples and drink Tequilia, and we'll wear red!

Materials: commercial fabric, fusing, fabric paints, chalk.

Technique: fused appliqué, free motion quilting, embellished with paint and chalk.

My father passed on January 11, 2001. On the evening of his funeral we held a bonfire to honour his passing. This quilt symbolizes his continued presence even after he was gone from our physical lives, and was made using a photo taken the night of the fire. I tried several times to add further embellishment, but the quilt would not accept them. Although not a traditional Mexican DOD style, this quilt, in its simplicity, is my father.

When the challenge went out for entries for Day of the Dead, I entered because I teach English to people mostly from Mexico and it sounded interesting. Little did I know that a very good friend who had just gotten engaged over the Christmas holiday would be diagnosed with lung cancer. She was told of her condition in late January two weeks before the wedding. She died ten days after the bittersweet event. With Spirit of the Bride, I hoped to capture the roller-coaster emotions of that day and to celebrate her transition to a better place. I also wished to project the fragility of life and how close we all are to death each day. Spirit is fused and free-motion quilted. The veil is three dimensional and tacked to the surface by hand.

In memory of my mother, Margaret Marie; married 49 years ago with a bouquet of yellow roses, who took her own life 41 years ago. Never forgotten, but I will not have her flowers in the house.

Hand-dyed and commercial fabrics, dimensional roses, silver lame skull and binding.

Techniques and materials-- Using my ceramic Catrina statue as an example, I sketched an image and cut pattern pieces. Fabric pieces were fused onto the background fabric and edges were stitched with monofilament. The feather was created from a piece of fabric I pole-wrapped and hand-dyed. Hat fabric was hand-dyed, silkscreened, and discharged. Various elements were thread painted for dimension, and the entire piece was free-motion quilted. Spider web pin was glued onto the surface.

Materials used are commercial and hand-dyed cotton, cotton/poly fusible batting, cotton/polyester/rayon threads.

Since moving to San Antonio, I've become fascinated with the Day of the Dead celebration. I am especially enamoured with the catrinas: dressed up in their finery, they come to escort the recently-departed up to the "big party" in the sky.

Pure Heaven is my little Day of the Dead shrine to my beloved Dad. He loved nature, wading streams and fly fishing. I often picture him now having the time to do what he so loved.

The background is raw edged appliquéd made using hand dyed and hand painted fabrics. The back and fisherman are commercial fabrics. The marigolds from my garden were scanned and then printed on fabric to make the border. The entire piece was thread painted and free motion quilted. Embellishments, including fish, a dry fly, and luminous paint completed the work.

Cotton canvas, polyester batting, cotton muslin, commercial prints. machine raw-edge applique and machine quilting.acrylic paint. hand beaded.

Do you think she looks happy? I do. I have made this quilt in remembrance of my father's mother Nell Farrington Useted. We can all look back to our ancestors and single out the ones who may have passed on their artistic gifts to us. Gramma was the one for me. Besides being a full time homemaker, mother and farm wife in a time before the conveniences that we take for granted, she took in laundry to help make ends meet and still found time to always be doing something creative. Knitting, crocheting, painting - she dabbled and churned it out and got great pleasure from just doing it. In addition, she taught and encouraged me by allowing me to straighten her sewing box and cross stitch a rainbow of borders on all the pillow cases in the house. Both my grandparents were avid gardeners and I whenever I can coax something green to flourish and blossom, I can feel her approval over my effort to make something beautiful happen just for the sake of enjoying it...but don't neglect the tomatoes and lettuce!

It was hard for me to come with a subject for this piece because I've spent my life mostly trying to hide my feelings for one reason or another. I have lost family members and lost friends that were like family members but somehow kept my feelings in check. But then a couple of years ago I was home alone for the weekend and my daughter's pet rabbit, Sugar, died. It was probably the fact that for once I was alone and didn't have to be" strong," but all my grief both past and present poured out of me over Sugar. I buried her wrapped carefully in fresh quilters muslin, tied with a pink satin ribbon and then sprinkled with pink rose petals. Lastly I planted a rose bush over Sugar.

This piece illustrates a happy Sugar dancing among the carrots in Paradise.

Hand dyed & commercial fabrics. Glass Beads, Polymer clay bones, army issue dog tag.

In Southwest tradition this Day of the Dead quilt honors the life of my dog: Sarge. Orion depicts his hunting ancestry. We would often track Orion across the winter sky while visiting with the owls. Rubber duckies were his favorite bath toy and his chew bones were always under foot. Sarge protected me from unseen harm and saved me from a fire! My life was truly blessed by such a loving creature. Always there for me. Always my Prince.

I've been interested in Day of the Dead artwork for some years now. These quilts are part of an on-going series to celebrate the Mexican folk-art tradition and are more humorous in nature than honoring anyone in particular."

Not every one has loving family members to remember them and sometimes one just has to get away from listening to the family squabble and telling you their problems or maybe it is just a need to visit with other quilters.

Materials: Commercially printed Cotton fabrics, cotton batting, Found and purchased miniature embellishments, Computer printed shrink art medals, Hand sculpted head from Sculptey III.

I chose to honor my father in my entry. During my lifetime, my father was a hunter and gun collector. He was a fisherman and a carpenter. He believed in
planting by the signs and in self-sufficiency.
I was a late child and before I was born, he was a poor mountain kid, a musician and a warrior. In WWII, he was wounded and argued to keep his arm
getting, instead, wires in his elbow and months in the hospital. I am fascinated be the things I never saw in him and how events shaped his life. The war took music from him but made it possible to meet my mother. I honor his life in this quilt, both the man I knew and the one I've only heard of.

Sabrina Zarco
Little Rock, AR

Statement: La Catrina, the fashionable lady, is the most popular of Jose Guadalupe Posada’s many engravings. Here she is preparing for the three days of celebration of Dia de los Muertos. The cempasuchil (flowers of the dead) play an important role in preparing for the celebration. Their fragrance in addition to the burning of the copal helps the visiting spirits to find their way home. This work is in remembrance of my many relatives who enjoyed creating their own fashionable clothes for special celebrations.