Boo Cartledge Throws the First Pitch of the Season!

[Thom Courcelle]

Spring FIBER ART SEASON is upon us.  There have been some quilting league upsets, some sewing machine contract trade-ups, some promising rookie youths entering the fray... But Boo Cartledge--a hometown favorite--will always make the team!!

On this fiber mail art piece by Boo, some young feller from the Indiana Braves graces the front--I daresay that this work is hand-stitched!

The more I investigate this piece, the more I recognize how BRILLIANT it is.  Boo totally stuck with the baseball theme throughout this piece--there are the Saguaro Cactus from Arizona WHERE PRE-SEASON BASEBALL TEAMS PRACTICE; there are the seagulls flying above the stadium bleachers, JUST WAITING FOR SOME LITTLE KID TO DROP HIS HALF-EATEN BALLPARK HOTDOG; there is the crossed-whip-stitch, GATHERING THE ENDS OF THE WHITE LEATHER ON THE BASEBALL.  Also affixed is a cut-out dictionary entry for the term "bunt" : definition 2. (verb) In baseball, to tap the ball lightly."  A double entendre exists in the word, since in quilting terms, bunting can mean lightweight, loosely woven fabric  used chiefly for flags and festive decorations; and also "thickly napped fabric."

Sorry, Boo, but I don't think this was a "bunt"; rather, I think it was a HOMERUN.  Thanks for this homemade beauty!