Sonia Delaunay

Andy and Jim began quilting some years ago when Jim as a part of his 1996 Masters’ thesis project worked on the construction of a cottage industry to a corporate concern. Now retired bankers, they try to spend as much time as possible creating and experimenting with quilt designs, fabrics, their machines, and thread.

Jim’s degrees include Bachelors in Education and a Masters in Organizational Management. Andy’s degree is the area of Textile Engineering. Both worked on Masters of Business Administration.

Andy and Jim try to create, design, borrow, and beg their ideas from the past, the present, from those artists much more experienced, and at times from that which takes their fancy. Jim is constantly saying that he now understands why he took so many trigonometry and analytical geometry classes in the past. Their style of quilting is considered a mélange of Traditional, Contemporary, Artistic, and Modern.

Andy and Jim have created an abstract and mosaic quilt of 100% cotton of 0.8-inch squares in the attempt to capture the essence, strength, and spirit of Sonia Delaunay’s style and effort. Their design is a compilation (albeit mash-up) of her works from one of the Vogue magazine covers painted by Delaunay in conjunction with the fashions as included in her 1925 painting Simultaneous Dresses (The three women).

Sonia Delaunay, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colors and geometric shapes.

Sonia Delaunay is created using 100% cotton fabrics, of solid colors.

Photo courtesy Jim Smith