Remembering Ken

In August, after a long battle with cancer, my wife’s Uncle Ken passed away. Ken was a fascinating person and a collector par excellence of a wide variety of objects. One of these was his collection of neckties. So Aunt Max asked if I would create a quilt using them. All quilts are special, but this one is truly unique. Even the fabric composition is unique (for me) as it is comprised of cotton, flannel, polyester, and silk! Using the ties as a starting point, I tried to capture Ken’s essence.

Ken’s main passion was movies. He had a large collection of vintage films, projectors, posters, and other paraphernalia. Related to Ken’s love of movies (especially serials) is the fact that he was also an author: (see "To Be Continued" and "To The Rescue"). Thus, I included a fabric with images from classic horror movies. (This fabric is also the back of the quilt.)

He was also a professor of communications at Iona College in New York. So there are some squares devoted to teaching / school.

At one time, Ken and Max owned and ran Shire Village Camp in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Hence the camp-related fabric.

Finally, Ken loved music, and, of course, his taste was eclectic. He loved classic music from the 30s and 40s, but he also liked the rock-n-roll of the 60s and 70s. Every Sunday he listened to Jonathan Schwartz on public radio. So I included the fabric with the musical notes.

All of these theme fabrics are surrounded by squares cut from Ken’s ties.

With this quilt as a symbol, we will always remember Ken.