The description I have here is modified from a story I wrote for a StoryCollider workshop I participated in during Summer 2024. At that time, I had only completed the quilt top. Now that the entire quilt is completed, I’m posting the description.

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I always make an effort to balance my science with a creative activity. I still crochet, and have now added quilting as a hobby. Once in a while, I am guilty of quilting science-themed items, such as data visualizations or stories of my times on oceanographic research expeditions. And I do still have a huge appreciation for music, an appreciation that has not waned over time, But instead of playing in concerts like I did back in elementary school through college, I now attend concerts ranging from classical music to classic rock. In fact, in July 2024, I was at a Philadelphia Orchestra Concert when they played George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue in honor of the 100-year anniversary of score. I had never heard this piece played by a live orchestra before, and my excitement for this performance was at an all-time high. I connected with the familiar notes of this masterpiece, resisting the urge to hum along. I was mesmerized by the piano player that sat in front of the orchestra, effortlessly moving his hands rapidly back and forth across the black and white keys of the piano, not having any sheet music in front of him to read from. I know I had a huge smile on my face listening to this incredible piece.

And then – the strangest thing happened.  I thought my mind was 100% focused on the music I was hearing, but while I was actively listening, this random idea popped in my head, out of nowhere. Could a quilt be made of Rhapsody In Blue? I quickly tried to dismiss this idea, because I really wanted to just focus on the music, but I also feel that my inner musician was calling to me, trying to find a way to connect my music identity with my creative work in the fiber arts. I only spent roughly 24 hours thinking about this, then decided – yes, I have to figure out how to quilt music.

Now it has been some time since I’ve read sheet music – close to 30 years. But I went ahead and ordered the music score for Rhapsody In Blue from Amazon. Then I decided I couldn’t wait for that shipment to arrive, that I really wanted to begin right away. Through some internet searching, I found a website that had not only the music score for Rhapsody In Blue, but you could hit play online and listen to a piano play the music! I will admit, it took me a short time to recall how to read notes on a music staff – but the phrase “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” quickly popped into my mind and reminded me how to determine which notes are on which line in a music staff. And I didn’t want to quilt actual notes, I was thinking of how I could cut fabric to represent the range of notes and their duration. I opened up my quilt sketching notebook, found another website that was a virtual keyboard so I could play the notes for the four bar sequence in the song I wanted to quilt, and mapped out how these 14 different notes that would be represented in 14 shades of blue fabric.

All of my other work was shoved to the side, even my laundry which I really needed to do, because I was so excited about this quilt project, and taking such a famous composition and playing this piece not through my piccolo but through my own quilt design. I completed the quilt top in less than a day (that’s pretty fast for the non-quilters out there). And I have to say, that for my first music-themed quilt, it’s not that bad! It’s a simple design, and it is easy to see how the width of the fabric swatches corresponds to the length of time each note is held out. It makes me smile every time I look at it and think back to what inspired me to complete this quilt in the first place. I may not be playing my piccolo anymore, but it looks like my new instrument may be the quilts I create.

The quilt was completed on February 22, 2025, and measures 27 inches wide by 33 inches in height.