Aullwood: Constance Norton

Since it is a bright sunny day outside, I thought it might be fun to play a little game. What do you think quilter Constance Norton was working on when she did these two pieces?



Hmm...how I can make you think about these.

OK, I'll just tell you. Windpower! Really fits in with the Aullwood "It's a Green World" theme, doesn't it? At any rate, they are just plain fun.

This first one is Windmill. It's fairly large by Aullwood standards, 55" x 51" Windmills were standard views on farms when I was growing up, in the midwest in the 1960s and 1970s, even though a lot of them were no longer functioning. This one reminds me of those rusted relics. They were also used to grind grain. The windmill at the Peyton Randolph site in Williamsburg was a companion for one summer as I worked with the archaeological crew excavating the yard.


This second one is really fun. It's Pinwheel. Constance wryly wrote "My first exposure to wind power was a pinwheel. " I remember looking longingly at them in the grocery stores...where they were put conveniently right next to the cashier so every small child could look and beg to take one home.

This last one is the modern rendition of a wind tower. I remember being amused when my friend Bob Smart came back from Argentina where he was working on installing a "wind farm." Harnessing the wind yes, but growing it?

I know that they are causing quite a bit of controversy, but I find the wind towers sculptural and elegant and far less annoying or disruptive to the horizon than cell towers. I am, however, aware that they are a problem for bird strikes and I hear that bats are impacted by a change in pressure in their lungs.


It does, however, seem like it is a better answer than coal and gas powered plants. Certainly there is loss of wildlife with hydro generation as well.

It is rare that I can get a shot of the quilting to actually show up, and I realize that straight line quilting isn't the most impressive, unless of course, they lines are as true and straight as Connie's are here.


Constance does commission work and is a member of the Mason Dixon Quilt Professionals group. Just click on the link to find her.