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