Circus Challenge

The circus challenge means it is time to reveal another art challenge quilt for The Endeavourers. We are a group of quilters who challenge each other with quarterly themes. This quarter’s theme was “circus” and it was definitely a challenge for me. I usually have many ideas to choose from for my challenge quilts, but with this one, I had very few. It wasn’t until I was whining to my daughter about it that she recalled an article she had read about a circus disaster in Hartford, Connecticut in 1944.

July 6, 1944 was a day of excitement as people gathered for what was the largest Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus in the country. The Big Top would seat 9,000 people around its three rings. Back in those days, the huge canvas tents were coated with paraffin wax dissolved in gasoline, a common waterproofing method at the time. Excitement soon turned to horror when a fire broke out during the circus. You can read about this horrific event here.

I decided to make my challenge quilt to remember this awful event in the history of the circus. I started by making the background in red/white rectangles to signify the Big Tents. I used Grunge with its gray markings to signify the smokey skies. For the wording, I cheated just a little and used fabric markers – I had waited so long to get started on this quilt, I had to cut some corners!

For the clown, I made his expression similar to that of famous sad tramp clown, Emmett Kelly. In the above article, a photo is shown of him carrying a water bucket, so I thought my clown should be a little Kelly-esque. Because of the Emmett Kelly photo, the day became known as “the day the clowns cried”. I glue basted the clown face to the background, and then stitched it down using raw edge applique.

For the quilting, I decided to use a yellow thread and free motion flames throughout the quilt top, other than the face.

I had this circus fabric on my shelf and decided to use that for the quilt backing.

A little red binding, and my quilt was finished. The quilt measures 17″ x 18.5″. I’m satisfied that I met the challenge, even though my quilt is about a sad event in history.

Wendy