Photo credit: Harvey Fierstein Facebook page

You can read more about Harvey’s quilting journey in this Playbill article, but long story short, he is phenomenal. He is a fine artist, and has quilted for more than 30 years. We got to know Harvey when we opened the shop, and it has been amazing to see his quilting journey. His quilts were never traditional – they always had exuberant colors and a complete disregard for the motifs of the fabrics. Yet with his keen eye, crazy quilts were not so wacky, and prints that never belonged together looked like they were made for each other.

“It’s easy to say no, because you’re scared. But I’ve always been a ‘sure, whatever. Why not,’”

Harvey Fierstein, in Playbill article

You may know of Harvey as a playwright, actor, artist, and advocate, but I know him as a quilter and friend. It started when we opened the store and Harvey wandered in. We hit it off and I started quilting his quilts. And then, his curiosity took over and he learned how to longarm. And then he got a longarm machine of his own and that is when things got really, really good. Having a machine at home supercharged his quilting creativity. He was no longer limited by the designs I was willing to stitch. He loved being able to do it all himself and has a philosophy around trying something new with every project. And he doesn’t let perfection stand in the way of progress. A mistake to Harvey is a design choice, and something learned. We can all learn from Harvey’s approach to quilting. As I said in the Playbill article, his visual design skills and creativity combined with his technical ability and fearlessness combined with his rich storytelling has resulted in something special. And we are so fortunate that he chose to share his work at the KTMHC last weekend.

Here are the quilts, in no particular order. These are not professionally photographed, but when the photos are released from the exhibit I’ll update the post so you can get a better look.

Photo Credit: Heather Gershonowitz, Playbill

This is Family Portrait, a stunning self-portrait with Harvey and his sons, aka my nephews. Charlie, a leonberger, is on the left, and BoBo, a Blue Bay Shepherd on the right. The only thing wrong with this quilt is that I have never seen BoBo so calm!

Funhouse – All of the texture in the background is couching, a process by which you pull a thread, yarn or cord through the foot and stitch it on top of the quilt. It essentially turns the quilt top into a canvas. I could look at this for hours and always see new motifs and designs in Harvey’s work. And see his signature on the lower right. Love it!

Sideshow – Just wow. This quilt is a great representation of what it is like visiting Harvey’s home as he has an amazing art collection including numerous nostalgic carnival, circus and fun house pieces.

Brownstone Goddess – This one shows Harvey’s range. While most of his quilts are all color, this one is special due to the absence of color. His artistic skills and couching have to do all the work. The faces are fantastic and I love how they protrude into the border.

Warhol Fairies – The photo doesn’t do this one justice, but if you zoom in you can see all the texture on the blue background. The appliqued flowers really brought this one together for me.

Light Grafitti – All I can do is stare and take it in. It is an explosion of creativity and everywhere you look there is something to see. It is amazing the depth of color he gets with his thread painting. Look at Charlie’s face (the blue dog) – it is so rich.

Howling at the Moon – BoBo takes center stage in this quilt and it is such a realistic likeness of BoBo. I love it. Again, as I keep saying, the photos don’t do the quilts justice.

Drag – Here is Harvey’s drag quilt featuring many of his favorite queens. can you find Harvey?

Walking Tree – Stunning in his simplicity. The trick to this quilt is how easy he makes it look, when it is actually anything but.

Rainbow Scraps – At first glance this quilt is reminiscent of the quilts I used to quilt for Harvey. It has a beautiful gradient rainbow background, but then if you zoom in and look you see the amazing couching work on top. He used thread to help accentuate the rainbow to a thrilling effect.

Chita – This is a tribute quilt that Harvey made for his dear friend Chita Rivera after she passed. He has said that the short spiky hair is true Chita. What a tribute!

Gavin – This is another quilt that explores death and I see comfort and support in the imagery of this one. Even BoBo, always energetic, is ready to offer solace.

Gently Down the Stream – In memory of Harvey’s dear friend Gavin Creel. What a way to hold memories close.

B/W – This study in black and white is fantastic. If you look closely and see the spikes, you will see pieces of blocks that artist and quiltmaker Sarah Bond sent to Harvey before she passed away. It is so awesome that he was able to incorporate them into this quilt in such a beautiful way. And, the pop of green. A little hole that he covered with a Kaffe flower – perfection.

Dark Grafitti – This is another one I could stare at all day. The two homes shown are the front and back of Harvey’s house. And yes, Betty Boop makes an appearance. Fantastic.

Fear – This one is political in nature and thank you Harvey for saying the things that need to be said.

And here they are all together!

Denim – Harvey brought a bonus quilt and an upholstered chair to use as a selfie station. How fun!

Harvey also donated a raffle quilt to benefit the Keeler Tavern – Red Stripe. Congratulations Alex!

Modigliani – this is a bonus quilt to the exhibit that Harvey finished the morning of the opening night. Amazing. The fun part of this one is that he used 8wt thread that wouldn’t run properly through the machine. So, he put the thread in the bobbin and loaded the top as the back and quilted from the other side. Get it? What a fun thing to try and a wonderful surprise when he took it off the frame!

Klint – This is another bonus quilt that was hanging at the pop-up shop. It is stunning in craftmanship, and so interesting with the pieced back.

And the quilts in the garden and pop up shop….

It was great to see so many friends come out to see these marvelous quilts and we met many new quilty friends as well.

To follow Harvey’s quilting adventures, follow him on Facebook or Instagram. He is terrific about sharing his work. And, he is entertaining offers to take the show on the road, so maybe he will bring these stunning quilts to your town soon!