"Self Portrait with Nellies": Quilt Art by Rebekka Seigel

It seemed time for me to create a self portrait after putting so many other faces in my quilt art for so many years. I spent a month in Northern Ireland teaching quilt making in 1995. While there, I became intrigued by their embroidery traditions and decided to ply my own needle upon my return home. The portraits in my hands, the hands that are of great importance to me as a quilt artist, are of my grandmother Nellie and my daughter Nellie. I see myself as a link in the chain that connects us. My grandmother was a quilt maker who inspired me to make quilts and my daughter is an artist, carrying on that part of my passion. I am surrounded by folk art inspired motifs because I feel that my approach to the art of quilt making grows out of a folk art tradition passed down to me by my grandmother.