Dia De Los Muertos is a orimarily Mexican and American Southwest ancestor holiday, where elaborate altars are made celebrating the beloved dead, family parties are held at gravesites and special rituals and ceremonies are performed. The belief is that the spirits of our dead ancestors come to visit on this day, and we should honor and welcome them.
I made this quilt several years ago about this holiday. It is called "Bone Deep Remembrance". 
The chrysanthemum is the flower of the holiday. Mine were made with several layers of hand-dyed cotton, stitched just in the center.
The bone skull beads were so cool the way they came, that I left them in strands and attached them loosely to the quilt surface.
The four ancestors represent each of my four grandparents, I used the same skull picture which was printed out on silk. Several of the fabrics for the hats and scarves were from my grandmother's fabric stash that I inherited.
For more Dia de Los Muertos posts go check out Dia de Bloglandia! There are tons, with creative and interesting posts about how people out in blogland celebrate this holiday.
Julie what a lovely way to pay tribute to your Grandparents. Beautiful quilt. Thx. for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you got out of the rain, and were able to post. I love your quilt!
ReplyDeleteNeat mum! I always want to do something like that on a skirt, but I can't seem to loosen up! I tagged you and your bad self on my blog just now. Hope you can play!
ReplyDeleteJulie! Your quilt is amazing! I love the marigolds and that you used your grandmothers fabrics for the clothes and hats!
ReplyDeleteBravo!
Thank you for being part of the celebration!
x..x
steph
Love that you incorporated cloth from your grandmother into your quilt. It's beautiful. Love the skull beads too!
ReplyDeleteBone Deep Remembrance, I've experienced that! Beautiful quilt and story.
ReplyDeleteThis is so creative! I am sure you found deep pleasure in creating this. Thanks for sharing this very personal quilt with us! :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful tribute to your loved ones. I love the strings of skulls and the colourful bandannas. best wishes amanda
ReplyDeleteIt's neat that you were able to incorporate the clothing of you relatives into the artpiece you've created here. It makes the piece so much more personal, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI had very little time online recently and everyone's Dia de Bloglandia posts were worth reading, so I'm just finally wandering in oh-so fashionably late. I started on the bottom and worked my way up the list, got restless and went to the top and worked down, and of course YOU are in the middle! LOL.
ReplyDeleteFun quilt. I have some of those bone skull strings as well. I haven't decided what to do with them yet.