But this simple description doesn't get anywhere near the fascinating detail you can see in Ruth's quilts. My favourite has to be Riva shopping at the grocery store. I love the way Ruth's used novelty fabric for the various items on the shelves (and not just because her donuts are far larger than her steaks!) and in the shopping trolley and even money coming out of Riva's bag. This is accompanied by Riva's ravings on diets in which you can read where Ruth got these food fabrics: she posted a "wanted" note online and things arrived in the mail!
Not having a sewing machine that will niftily embroider letters for me, I found the hand-written text on the quilts inspiring; the quilts really are like blocks from a cartoon, with speech bubbles from the various characters. I'd always thought my handwriting would be too irregular but seeing the variation in Ruth's letters shows how this just adds to the character. Lettering doesn't need to be typeset quality!
In her introduction Ruth points out that she doesn't consider Riva to be her alter-ego, but admits that her life provides inspiration for what happens in Riva's life. I think a shrink could read volumes into this connection. But for the rest of us, it's just tremendous fun!
Published by C&T Publishing. ISBN 1-57120-048-7 64 pages, paperback.
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