Da Vincis work inspires dentist

Tag : cloth embroidery

What do you suppose a modern-day dentist has in common with a 15thcentury Renaissance painter? Perhaps its the virtue of patienceand great attention to detail. Leonardo da Vinci spent at least twoyears, 1495-1497, with tempera paints and brushes in hand,carefully depicting Christs Last Supper with his 12 apostles. It was a large project on a dining room wallinside a Dominican cloister in Milan, Italy. When finished, thescene measured 15 feet by 29 feet.
Dentist Don Locke reproduced this masterpiece in patchwork over 21/2 years, essentially the same length of time Da Vinci took topaint the original. Locke enlarged a computer-generated copy of aphotograph of The Last Supper until the pixels appeared. From those, he made templates and cutfabrics into one-inch squares. It was a huge project sewn together 51, 816 pieces  by Locke on a Singer Featherweight machine inhis Waxahachie, Texas, home. When finished, each square measured atinier one-half inch and the cloth tableau measured 67 inches by183 inches.
Coincidentally, Lockes quilt was completed in 1999, the same yearthat da Vincis painting reopened for public viewing after a21-year restoration process. During Locks patchwork project, hestill worked full time at dentistry. Now in retirement, he travelswith his wife, Marilyn, around the US and to other countries,showing his Supper quilt. It was on display this spring inChicago at the International Quilt Festival. Locke and his wifewere on hand to answer questions from visitors who marveled at hismind-boggling accomplishment. The idea to make the quilt came toLocke in an instant as something I had to do, he says. Myquilting wife said I was crazy. I had done a small wall hanging(using a similar technique), and this was my second project, so youcan say that I was naive.
After several years observing peoples reaction to the image , Ican say easily that it was a God-inspired project. Backing fabricfor the quilt was hand-dyed by Jy Press of Godley, Texas.All-cotton batting and thread were used, and professional quilterLinda Taylor of Melissa, Texas, stitched the quilt on a longarmmachine.
Taylor found the task challenging because the quilt was longer thanher machine table, and because the closer you are to the quilt, themore difficult it is to see the figures. It took her three weeksto...