Laura Hartrich 11/22/24 Laura Hartrich 11/22/24

Everybody's Talking

(Alternate title: does everyone really need their own podcast?)

Everybody’s Talking, 50”x54”, finished 2024

A depiction of the mixed blessings of living in this internet age. Sugary sweet colors give way to overwhelm when every face I scroll past is telling me what I should be doing with my life, my health, my money, my relationships. That’s not to mention every celebrity and even lots of friends recording podcasts and here’s me for some reason feeling pressure to listen to them all. I love the fun of the internet and I subscribe to the Patreon of my favorite podcast, so I’m not against these things. But it also feels suffocating and no one is coming to help me regulate my consumption. That’s all on me, baby. Exhausting.

In the words of Bo Burnham, “Here’s a question for you guys. Is it necessary that every single person on this planet expresses every single opinion that they have on every single thing that occurs all at the same time?”

Laura Hartrich 1/31/24 Laura Hartrich 1/31/24

Working Through

Over the last year, I’ve had recurring pain in my elbow. The pain fluctuates and flares — I’ve come to think of it as its own entity. Each morning I check in.

How are you today?
How much attention will you require today?
What will you allow me to do today?

It’s always in the back of my mind, like a second pulse. I wanted to illustrate my relationship to the pain but also my need to keep going, keep creating, and keep using my body in this life. So in this quilt I’m attempting to portray my elbow pain alongside some creative life force flowing out of my hands. I appreciate my hands, wrists, and elbows for allowing me to do what I love. I’m rooting for them and trying to care for them so they will carry me another 30 to 50 years, please and thank you.

This quilt was constructed almost entirely from deconstructed shirts (everything but the back) as part of the Take the Shirt Off My Back sustainability challenge organized by Diane Paquin Provost, a member of my beloved Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. I took inspiration from amazing quilters I admire: Carolina Oneto, Sherri Lynn Wood, and Annabel Wrigley. From sketch to construction, this is one of the harder things I have pieced and I’m proud of how it turned out.

Laura Hartrich 1/10/24 Laura Hartrich 1/10/24

Ode to Kindah Khalidy

I love to collect colorful prints on white backgrounds but they tend to languish in my stash. I challenged myself to use them together in a quilt, experimenting with the various scales and densities of the patterns to see if I could create contrast despite the shared background. As I chopped and rearranged the fabrics, the resulting shapes reminded me of the bright and joyful paintings of Kindah Khalidy, one of my favorite artists. So I’ve named this one after her. The wool ties move in a quarter arc rainbow across the entire surface, adding another fun layer of color and shapes.

Measures approximately 73” square. Photos by Mitch Hopper.

Laura Hartrich 5/1/23 Laura Hartrich 5/1/23

Peoria Street Surplus

Sometimes we can’t explain the things we do for our art and this is one of those instances. I sewed up this quilt top in 2018, using extra blocks leftover from my Art 140 quilt. After having it long armed, I decided it needed to be hand quilted instead. So I spent the next 2 years ripping out the quilting I paid for, and quilting it by hand, block by block. I used the same lines as the original quilting, and joked that it was a very expensive way to mark a quilt. I often questioned my sanity. Now that it’s finally done and on our bed, I’m happy. Measures 83”x83” Photos by Mitch Hopper.

Laura Hartrich 4/29/23 Laura Hartrich 4/29/23

Yoshiko's Donut Mountain

I finished this earlier this year, it’s a quilt dedicated to donuts. It was conceived at QuiltCon 2015 when I bought this Yoshiko Jinzenji fabric featuring the puzzling yet pleasing motif of donuts floating over a mountain range. I started collecting fabrics to complement it, including a little bundle gifted to me by Celina Mancurti after I assisted in one of her QuiltCon screen printing workshops the same year. That stack of fabrics stayed stashed in a bag for 7 years, the longest I’ve ever had a project in progress. I’m glad to check it off the list. It’s not my favorite thing I’ve ever made but they can’t all be! It’s scrappy and a bit wild and I had fun piecing the donuts.

For the record my favorite donuts are glazed donuts from Walmart circa 2009 (I think they changed the recipe since then), and powdered donuts from the Oak Park farmers market. {{{excellent photos by @man.of.action as always}}}