Shrovetide/Fastelavn

Shrovetide – in Danish ’Fastelavn’ – is the original Danish carnival held in February which is wintertime in Denmark. Normally it is very cold and often we have snow at that time. Nowadays it is primarily a children’s feast which brings colours into cold and dark days. The children get some branches heavily decorated with sweets, coloured paper and small gifts.

Rio de Janeiro has inspired to carnivals in Denmark but these carnivals are postponed until winter is over.

The Quilt

The background is made of free hand cut fabrics in white and blue to mimic the Danish winter landscape.

The colourful Shrovetide/Fastelavn is mimicked by tree shapes, in the border and in some decorated branches.

Beads were added as branches on the trees and on the children’s decorated branches. 

Carnival

Carnival is not part of my culture, though I have been to some in the UK and also Switzerland. I wanted to use colour and the carousel theme to convey a happy, slightly chaotic, celebration. The 3D coronet, held flat with beads,  uses Vikki Pignatelli's double-sided zigzag technique. The black and white stripe refers both to the poles that hold the carousel ponies, and also the poles at the landing stages in Venice, another Carnival icon. I enjoyed working with the abstract units, building the colour blocks to balance and play with each other. The quilting uses modular rectangles as background line only.