I recently finished and entered a new digital piece that was accepted into the upcoming Houston quilt show. While finishing up the quilting with some friends, someone asked me how I came up with the idea of fracturing this image and reassembling it. My response was to shrug and say, “I have no idea. It just seemed right.”

I came home and the question kept nagging me. I had been thinking about it for a few days and had one of those head-slapping moments while yelling a big “Duh!!!” Even though my piece is not close to the beauties she produces, evidently I was channeling the quilter Sandra Bruce and didn’t even realize it until that moment!! Two inch squares, who would have thought! I can’t believe I truly didn’t realize how much Sandra had influenced the construction of this piece!

I belong to a quilt association that was lucky enough to have her come to speak and teach at the end of last year. I absolutely love her matrix quilts that break down photos into two inch square segments. They are just fabulous! Thank you, Sandra for the inspiration whether I was initially aware of it or not! If you’d like to see her amazing quilts, check out her Facebook page or her website. (You really should!) She also has a quilt (make that two) hanging in the Houston show!

My quilt is called Cynara. This is only a portion of the quilt. I’ll post a picture of the whole thing soon. Here’s the story: While visiting his brother Poseidon, Zeus fell in love with Cynara, a beautiful young mortal woman. He took her to Olympus and made her a goddess so that he could have his bit on the side while Hera was out of town. Sadly, Cynara missed her home and would sneak back to earth to visit her family. Discovering this so angered Zeus he sent her back to earth and turned her into an artichoke – the very first artichoke.

So, this is Cynara complete with her checkered past.