Edie Schaub

 Past Blanket is a pair of quilts constructed with personal remnants and debris that I accumulated throughout my 20’s (1999-2009). Individually titled 21.1 and 21.2, they are autobiographical works that detail two different, but similar times in my life. Each quilt is composed of photographs, clothes, paint rags, journal pages, nightclub wristbands and various other collected materials.

 Creating this project was a way to recycle all the scraps and mementos I had accumulated, but also a way for me to look back and digest the memories of that time. 21.1 spans the party days of my early twenties, traveling, and then getting married. 21.2 sees my divorce and moving away to college for the first time as if I was 21 again. Each quilt is a physical document of those times and those places.

 Quilt making and Storytelling are interlinked traditions. Through patterns, materials used and personal flourishes, one can ascertain information about the time and place where the quilt was made and perhaps who the maker was. Historically, quilt making has been the domain of women or other domestic workers, whose place in society was often diminished. For many of them, the quilts they made would be the only record of their lives.

© 2022 by Edie Schaub