Click here to see a detail of the feather quilting in the border.

I made this quilt in 1997 for my then 7-year-old son Max. I used fabrics that I had dyed myself mixed with fabrics that included the same sorts of colors, made lots of half-square triangles, and went to town with it. This quilt was so much fun to make! I stuck all the squares to a huge flannel sheet on my wall and played with them for quite some time before settling on this arrangement. Click here to see one of the earlier permutations. The title was inspired by my ex, Max's dad. He made some sort of observation about it looking almost religious or something, and then we talked about the exploding sort of look of it, and then I realized that Big Bang described both the quilt and the kid it was being made for.

The quilting in the border is a wandering feather pattern that I designed, and it changes colors as it goes around the quilt, to match the colors that it would be if the design were continued into the border (does that even make sense? ). The binding is pieced, also to carry the colors out further.

I entered Max's quilt in the Virginia State Fair in 1997, and it won a blue ribbon. I sent slides to the AQS show, but they didn't want it. I think it doesn't photograph well (and the full shot above, admittedly, isn't very good). It was a little while before I could let go of it enough to let the poor kid have it, but he's got it now. It's dirty and covered with cat hair, but very well loved. (2000)