This is short post about this very small piece which measures about six inches by four inches. It is made on a piece of old quilt with needle-turned appliqué. The appliqué is mainly done with plain fabric which I monoprinted, but I used such small pieces that it just looks like striped fabric:
The fruit is meant to look like an apple, although I think it looks more like an orange. I made the piece because someone was telling me about the old, and now defunct, I think, Austrian custom whereby young women would put a piece of apple in their armpits and then do a ritual dance. At the end of the dance they would give the apple slice to their lover who would eat it. I presume if he refused the relationship came to an end. The way I was told the story was that the lovers put the apple slices in their armpits and then danced together all night and then swapped slices at the end and went home with their lover’s scent impregnating the fruit so they could continue to think of them. I think this is a nicer version.
This was a quick piece to make and I think the old, battered, frayed quality of the piece goes with the old, romantic tale. The piece of old quilt came from the Welsh Quilt Museum in Lampeter.
