L + N is a wedding quilt for two friends who moved away. While visiting them in their new home city, we spent an afternoon at the Art Institute of Chicago. We disbanded into our own journeys through the exhibits, shared a few works whenever our routes overlapped, and then wandered off separately again. That afternoon is a portrait of how I understand the new dynamic of our friendship, and it’s the memory I came back to when I designed their quilt.

I was captivated by the idea of creating a framed painting. I referenced elaborate museum frames for the quilt’s border and applied bright red echo quilting for the whimsy that occurs when something’s form is drawn onto itself (which was also partly inspired by a cool dish towel the bride bought at an art market with top stitching to make it look like a sheet from a legal pad). The painting expanding over the frame is “incomplete.” It references the soft colors and forms of impressionism, an exhibit I always visit in art museums.