Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Traffic Boxs - Quilts as Public Art

 The Missoula Electric Quilters that I belong to won commissions to install our quilt designs on 2 of 6 traffic boxes that were decorated this Memorial Day weekend. We originally got involved in this project as a way for the group to expand our knowledge and use of the Electric Quilt software program. Our two submissions were the top 2 ranked projects of this round.

Besides the fun of creating as a group and the deepened friendships we learned more about designing with Electric Quilt, city government, and vinyl application.

Our designs are digital designs applied in vinyl to the traffic boxes. The hexagon box is titled "Missoula Quilted" and represents 4 of the mountains around Missoula including the iconic peace sign on Waterworks Hill, Lewis and Clark at Lolo Peak, the "M" for Montana State University and the "L" for Loyola High School.




 Our second traffic box is called "Missoula Heritage." The circular design is a compass to represent the early explorers including Lewis and Clark. On one of the side panels we again represent the"M" in the classic moon over the mountain quilt block. The pine trees bring to mind the forrests around Missoula and the long time forrest service industry so important to our area. The second large side of this box is a lone star variation. Lone star quilts are traditional native American gifts. On the top to be seen only by truckers and bus riders is a garden block since Missoula is often called the "Garden City"

I will get better pictures when the caution tape comes down later this week but I couldn't wait to share. We have been pretty excited about this project and mighty proud.


El grupo de Missoula Electric Quilters que yo assisto ganó comisiónes para instalar nuestro diseños en 2 de 6 cajas de tráfico que fueron adornado éste primavera. Ahora Missoula tiene 28 cajas decoradas. Originalmente empezamos en éste proyecto para aprender más del programa de Electric Quilt. Además de la diversión de crear en grupo nuestros amistades se hacen más profundo y aprendimos mejor el programa de EQ, el gobierno de la ciudad y la aplicación de vinilo.

Nuestros diseños digitales son aplicado en vinilo a las cajas de tráfico. El diseño de hexágonos se llama ''Missoula Quilted" y representa 4 de las montañas alrededor de aquí. La caja segunda se llama "Patrimonio de Missoula." Hay una estrella que es un diseño tradicional de las indigenas, un compás que representa las exploraciones, bosques que representa la industria de las arboles y animales de aqui como wapiti y osos. Encima de este caja es un deseno de jardines porque muchas veces Missoula se llama ciudad de jardines.

Voy a tomar fotos mejores en 2-3 días cuando representantes de la ciudad quiten las cintas de advertencias. No puedo esperar por ese. Estamos muy emocionante con mucho orgullo de ese proyesto. Ahorita la ciudad tiene colchas en lugares publicos.

1 comment:

  1. Aha! Finally got Blogger to put my name on my comments. Apparently I wasn't the only one to have this problem. Anyway, I think the traffic boxes are a really special way to promote quilt designs. You must have had a great deal of fun working on this!

    ReplyDelete