(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/PrinceAndThePauper.jpg)
Some people say Mark Twain's novel "The Prince and the Pauper" is a novel for children - I'm not so sure. But it is a novel in which rich imagination is tightly connected with facts, and a moral: "... kings should go to school to their own laws, at times, and so learn mercy."
"Set in 1547, the novel tells the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive father in Offal Court off Pudding Lane in London, and Edward VI of England, son of Henry VIII of England. The novel begins with Tom Canty, an impoverished boy living with his abusive family in London. One day Tom Canty and Prince Edward, the son of King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, meet and as a jest, switch clothes." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_and_the_Pauper)
In my quilt I tried to reflect some of this playfulness, unconventionality, as well as this thought : give mercy.
Moreover I tried a combination of both worlds, the world of the Prince and the world of the Pauper. So I worked in a coin, a crown, a fancy ribbon as well as "ragged" cloth. (It's interesting: I tend to find the right things when I need them, I found all these little things, coins and such, just lying in my drawer, waiting to be used just NOW.) :-)
But what I like best in this story is that Mark Twain describes so beautifully what books can give to a child: Tom covers himself with stories like a boy who is cold would do with a blanket.
So I chose these lines from the novel to write on the quilt:
"... so he put in a good deal of his time listening to Good Father Andrew's charming old tales and legends about giants and fairies, dwarfs and genii, and enchanted castles and gorgeous kings and princes ... he unleashed his imagination and soon forgot his aches and pains in delicious picturings to himself of the charmed life of a petted prince in a regal palace."
I printed the lines on little pieces of cloth, I wanted them to look like pages from old books read in the straw, in a shabby hut...
In an attempt to meet the abundance of imagination in the story I quilted the piece richly.
The quilt is for hanging up on the wall, or, alternatively, for using it as a blanket, a plaid. (plaid = originally a scottish travel-blanket, often checked)
