Rob’s quilt is
a celebration of the fullness of her life as woman, daughter, lover, mother, sister, and all her relationships, so the full moon
sits at the centre of a ‘mandorla’, almond shaped celebratory garland
of roses, suggesting recognition, celebration and honour (‘hacol hakavod’, as
it is expressed in Hebrew). Returning to my usual method for creating the face
of a full moon, I applied lots of small (pubic) triangles cut from various
shades and types of whites from my stash. I overlap them in an attempt to
emulate the shining glow of a gleaning, white full moon. Then it occurred to me
that a representation of the seasonal cycle of change was not particularly
obvious in the quilt – though later I was to make reference to this by attaching
the frame to the purple background of an equal black and white surrounding
border: summer/winter and day/night. I discarded this first full moon (- it
will no doubt be used in a later quilt), and set to work on another, inspired
by an image of the full ‘strawberry moon’ seen during the summer Solstice, and
posted on Face Book – again providing an interesting source of inspiration!
The full
moon, waxing and waning
It is interesting that the full moon as a ‘rose’ moon a-rose for the
quilt! It appears in the same month of the Summer Solstice. The Indigenous
Peoples of North America name it a “strawberry moon”, since it coincides with
the harvesting of strawberries in the month of full summer, June in the
northern hemisphere. Delicious strawberries surely remind us of the fullness of
the seasonal cycle, from rebirth at Winter Solstice, reaching full expression
in earth’s fruitful harvest at the Summer Solstice, (which is for us in
Australia is in December). Apparently the indigenous peoples of the Americas
have names for each of the full moons as they relate to the annual cyclical
earthly food production and availability. This rose moon has an Australian inference.
The presentation of the full golden strawberry/rose moon in the quilt
shows it triumphant, in partnership with the white crescent new and waxing moon,which
heralds a coming into fullness; and an ‘old’, waning moon. Though we don’t
actually get to see the full dark moon over the last three days of waning part
of the cycle as black (as the moon waxes form the left across to the right in
the Southern Hemisphere, so does it wane in that direction with diminishing
light after fullness. These phases are of course also redolent of the three
phases of woman: maidenhood in readiness, mothering in nurturing, and croning by reminding us the cycle will continue.
Below is how the four corners of the "Earth" as represented here in Rob's quilt and according to her story have come together, and how they sit within the frame that insisted on coming first!
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