Rock Quilter Credits Gees Bend Quilters
His quilts are much different from those created by the Alabamians.
Ben Venom quilt.
CBS Sunday Morning this week included the story of a Houston man who makes quilts out of materials that include rock T-shirts. CBS reported his quilting journey started one day in 2006.
The self-taught artist grew up listening to punk rock and heavy metal. But his life was changed forever when he went to see an exhibition of quilts.
Gees Bend quilt.
“I saw the Gee’s Bend Quilt Show at the De Young Museum in 2006 here in San Francisco, and I was really blown away by their work — these quilts by these women they’ve made for over centuries,” he said, “They used a lot of recycled fabrics.”
“That show inspired Ben to take a pair of scissors into his closet to make his very first (and still, to this day, favorite) quilt. It includes a T-shirt for the band Testament. “I wore this Testament T-shirt for probably close to 15 years,” he said. “I mean, I wore it so much that it was so threadbare that you could see through it. And at that point I was like, ‘Ehhh, it’s not too metal to wear it out in public now.’ So I cut it up and put into that first quilt that I made in 2008.”
The quilt is named “Listen to Heavy Metal While You Sleep.”
See the CBS report HERE.
