Banned Books Week


This week is Banned Books Week and fellow quilters, Tanesha and Sandy, are hosting their annual Banned Book Week Challenge where they invite other quilters to make a small art quilt depicting a book from the Banned Book List. At the end of the week, they are awarding some wonderful prizes to a few folks. Photos of the art quilts are in the Flickr Group. Go on over and check out these awesome art pieces. Maybe you’ll be inspired to read one of the books that have been banned or challenged or maybe you’ll be inspired to create your own piece?

This is the first year I have participated in the challenge and I chose Roald Dahl’s James & The Giant Peach. I remember reading this book when I was younger and I don’t recall being frightened by it but being too scary for the target audience is one of many reasons this book is challenged. You can read in depth about it HERE. It’s basically accused of being scary, using mysticism, having sexual references?, promoting bad behavior, drugs and alcoholism and of course promoting child abuse (remember how bad James was treated by his aunts). When I read that book in grade school, I had no idea it contained all of this nastiness. I was just enchanted by a boy riding in a giant peach. I thought it was imaginative and interesting. This book for some reason reminds me of the two libraries I spent time in as a child. I fondly remember the Browne School Library which was in my elementary school and the Children’s Room at the Watertown Public Library.

Here are some photos of my art quilt….

james peach 1

This is fusible machine applique and the peach was made out of Angelina Fibers which were pretty fun to work with. I used a tiny smear of craft glue to adhere it to the quilt before I stitched it down. I used metallic thread for the spider web strings that carried the peach all over the place in that book and also for the lettering.

james peach 2

Have you read many of the books on the list? Which would you pick if you were to make a quilt from it?

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2 responses to “Banned Books Week”

  1. I want to let you know how much it was a big fun to make quilts with these challenges. I think it is a better way to utilize your efforts by comparing your results with challenges. Thanks for giving your time here to make this nice post.

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