Art Quilt: The Trousseau of The Princess

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My wife, Anne, is an art quilter and I have shared some of her creations in previous posts. The art quilt organization that she belongs to (SAQA) generates challenges for the members to work on, then judges their efforts in shows, some of which travel around a large part of the world. A recent challenge was simply the word “Red.” Anne had just read a novel about India, set during the period when the British ruled India. The book is “Raj,” by Gita Mehta, (1989). It’s the story of a woman, born into royalty as daughter of the Maharajah of Balmer. It is a big, complex novel of nearly 500 pages so I will not say much about the story (there is a Los Angeles Times article that looks interesting). Here is what Anne wrote about the quilt when she submitted her work: The images in this quilt are inspired by a book titled “Raj” which depicts the struggle of the Princely Kingdoms of India during the early 20th Century, as they attempted to gain the right of self- government from Great Britain. The 12 year old Princess is to marry the second son of the richest kingdom to assure an heir. She will be dressed in precious fabrics of Aleppo Silk and Gold Brocade, China Silk Shantung, Diamonds, Pearls. The Princes’ Procession includes drums and many people, three elephants, one of which tows a Rolls Royce. He tows it because no one in the group knows how to drive it. The prince will not be attending the wedding. I wanted to include her information since it explains the quilt better than I could. The quilt is based on the description of the bride’s gown in the novel. It took Anne about two months to complete it.