Frida Kahlo

I first encountered Frida Kahlo’s work in 2006. I saw a fabric with her image on it and it intrigued me enough to go look her up. What I discovered started a love of her work.

The colour, the flowers, the unibrow all of it felt different.

Like nothing i’d ever seen before. I wanted to know more about her and the meanings behind the paintings. I learned of her constant pain after an accident at 18, of her excruciating love for her unfaithful husband Diego and the details which she wove into her work that could be so easily overlooked. She dared to depict her nude, sick and unshaven body, which seemed to be such a radical move now, let alone in the 1920, 30’s 40’s and 50’s when her work was created.

Miscarriages, infidelity, surgeries and pain were all intricately depicted in her work yet it seems like today Frida is better known for her unibrow, which she deliberately kept to challenge perceptions of femininity.

In the quilt, I chose a simple black and white design, in a bid to make the flowers stand out.

The flowers were the most taxing part of this process. I had an image in my head of what I wanted but unable to find any fabric flowers big enough, I knew I had to make them myself.

That started a week long process of making, re-making and scrapping flowers. Eventually, I settled on making each petal individually from chiffon and satin fabric that could be shaped and then singed to make it curl.

Each petal then needed to be hand sewed onto the quilt, a process that took many many hours.

At the end of the process, I am really happy with how this quilt has come together. She is very striking in person and the reaction from the quilting community has been really positive.

Quilt Statistics:

Size: 54″ x 72″

Number of pieces: 1,473

Number of colours: 12

Number of hours to create: approx. 85

In July 2022 I got the opportunity to visit the Frida Kahlo Exhibit at The Philbrook Museum and bring my Frida quilt along!