Here is a link to a video on YouTube that shows how I am creating the Living Quilt for Steckborn in my Santa Rosa, CA, studio.
This artwork will be installed in April 2021 in a public park in Steckborn, Switzerland. I was invited to create this outdoor environmental art installation by Haus zur Glocke (https://www.hauszurglocke.ch/home/) Living Quilt for Steckborn is a handmade paper quilt that has seeds for wildflowers in the pulp to grow and change over time into a living flower bed. The quilt pattern I am using for this installation is based on a traditional American quilt pattern called “Delectable Mountains” or “Peaks and Valleys”. This design recalls the journey of American pioneers across the beautiful and sometimes dangerous mountains as they traveled West in wagon trains to settle in the West. The design with tall mountains also refers to the mountains of Switzerland visible from the town of Steckborn, on the shores of Lake Constance in the northeastern part of Switzerland.
I will be making this quilt for the next few weeks and also deciding if it is possible to travel to Switzerland to install it and make a headboard and footboard for the “bed” in the park in Steckborn. If travel is not possible because of the pandemic and quarantines, I will mail the “living quilt” to Haus zur Glocke in Steckborn, Switzerland, and provide instructions for its installation. Keep watching my Blog to see updates on the progress of making the “quilt” and its installation in Switzerland.
This photo shows me making the handmade paper quilt for Steckborn in my studio. Also, here is a photo of some of the completed blocks hanging on a clothesline to dry.
Photos of my art projects are by my husband Timothy S. Allen, and you can see many of his photographs on his Blog at https://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com
Jane Ingram Allen Art Projects 
So glad to see you are still making paper. This past year has drained me and even though I try to make something, I just don’t. I am hoping in the Spring to get back outside and try again. I love the template you made. Is it wood or plastic? Keep up the awesome work. Sandie Butler
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Hi Sandie, Thanks so much, and I am happy to be making paper in my garage studio during these difficult times. I will be sending this handmade paper quilt with the seeds in the pulp to Switzerland, because it does not look likely that I will be able to travel there even in April. The stencils on my papermaking screens are made with a material called “butternut”, and I think it is some kind of plastic material that almost feels like linoleum, and it has a sticky backing like contact paper, and you can cut it to any shape and attach temporarily to your papermaking molds to make different designs. In one of my previous videos on You Tube about Living Quilt for Sojourner Truth I go into more detail about making the stencils and using this method for making a handmade paper quilt block design. Good luck and thanks for staying in touch.
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Just watched the video. Great work and so interesting. Now I realize that you will not travel to Switzerland and I hope that the Swiss will do a good job at installing what you send them. My best, marie
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 8:12 PM Jane Ingram Allen Art Projects wrote:
> janeingramallen posted: ” Here is a link to a video on YouTube that shows > how I am creating the Living Quilt for Steckborn in my Santa Rosa, CA, > studio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdlRSswGpD0 This artwork will be > installed in April 2021 in a public park in Steckborn” >
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Thank you, Marie, and it is too bad I can’t go to Switzerland in April. I am sure they can install it well, and I plan to have a Skype meeting with them, and put it temporarily in my back yard to show them how to do it. I am madly working now to get it all made now in time to post it to Steckborn to arrive by April 10. With the slower mail and the pandemic and customs, you never know how long it will take. Tim and I both have both Covid shots now, and we were hoping to travel some this year, but it still looks not good because we would have to stay in quarantine and get tested in both directions. I will post more here about the Steckborn quilt soon. Thanks again and sending best wishes,
Jane
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