sara schmidt
salvage

contact:
sara@salvage.la
503.333.4580

copyright 2010 / all rights reserved

Salvaged Quilt
self-initiated project
my role: concept +design



I designed my own version of the traditional scrap quilt with various upholstery samples which were essentially rescued from the trash. Knowing that quilts historically have gone beyond being a mode of recycling fabrics, to bringing people together around social issues (womens issues, the AIDS quilt, etc) it was important to me that this quilt do the same by communicating a message. It does by being an information graphic - a sort of chart - of what we Americans do with our trash. The red fabrics account for the trash we bury in landfills, the green the trash we recycle and the blue we burn. Designing the quilt with found fabrics gave me an opportunity to work with an intentional goal, but an unpredictable outcome. The resulting design is a patchwork of unpredictable, serendipitous collisions of fabrics and mis-matched moments where a traditional craft became a vehicle for an untraditional statement.

This was designed as a part of my MFA thesis project. --> Salvage: I Fancy the Abandoned.