The Healing Quilts, Quilt 2, by Elaine Luther, Copyright 2025.  Photographed in a temporary installation. Photo credit: Dulce Rodriquez, XOL Photography.

The Healing Quilts are done! Mostly, at least this one is! I’m declaring victory.

This walk-in quilt is suspended from a 3 foot hoop, which means that yes, the quilt itself is about 9 feet wide! It’s about 7 feet tall. In this image, it’s dragging on the floor a bit, but in a gallery, it would be suspended off the floor by about a foot.

The entrance is through that opening there, framed by black binding on either side.

The other walk-in quilt is also done, except there might be a 3″ gap at the entrance, and I will have to close the gap, and probably add black binding at the entrance, for consistency. But the bulk of it is done, it is also about 7 feet tall, and nearly 9 feet wide.

These are called, respectively, “Things I Need to Hear You Say,” and “Things I Need to Say to You.”

These will be in my solo show in August, 2025, and I’m including them in all my solo and group show proposals. The two quilts are made out of about 8 different quilts, which are a combination of handmade and manufactured. Some I have overdyed, and on most I have done extensive repairs and patching. Each quilt-made-of-quilts includes pieces of the same 4 or so quilts, and then each one has more bits and pieces from additional, different quilts.

People who have gotten to go inside the quilts say that it feels “safe,” “peaceful,” “nice,” – generally, all positive things! I’m still collecting audio and that’s the next phase – to hand the audio over to my incredibly talented audio engineer.

When you walk in, you’ll hear audio, and you can contribute your audio! All the details and the “click this button to easily record,” are HERE.

Update, February 28, 2025

Here’s the next finished one!

The Healing Quilts, Quilt 1, Copyright Elaine Luther 2025. Photo credit: Dulce Rodriguez, XOL Photography.

Heres a detail:

Detail, The Healing Quilts by Elaine Luther. Photo credit: Dulce Rodriguez, XOL Photography.