Getting Out of My Comfort Zone

Who didn’t have a crush on Hubbell Gardiner? Or the Sundance Kid?

I’ve been a Robert Redford fan for as long as I can remember. Beyond the movies, I admired the man himself, especially his lifelong commitment to conservation. His environmental work earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Sundance name lives on well beyond the film. He funded the Sundance Film Festival in part with what he earned from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

So when he died in September 2025 at age 89, I felt it.

I’d been making collage quilts for a while by then, but I’d never worked up the nerve to try a human face. Animals, landscapes, a roof in France? Sure. People? Too intimidating. If you don’t get the eyes right, the rest just won’t work!

Sundance changed that. I wanted to capture more than his face. I wanted his character, and the dusty, sepia-toned feel of the Butch Cassidy era. So I went digging through my scrap bins for pieces that felt vintage: faded prints, browns and golds, old-fashioned florals. And honestly, most of these scraps were fabrics that I really didn’t care for on their own – but together I think they work just fine.

Then I did something even scarier than figuring out how to build his face: I entered him in a quilt show. My first ever. Sundance went into the Art Quilt category at the 2026 North Idaho Quilt Show. What I did not know was that this wasn’t just an exhibit, there was actual VOTING on the quilts by category. (I’m not sure I would have had the courage to submit him if I’d known that!)

Imagine my surprise when I visited the show on its last day to see that Sundance was sporting a ribbon! Okay, it was third place. But still! Third place! At my very first show!

I’m proud of this one. Sundance taught me that the thing I was most nervous to try was the thing I most needed to try. He gave me the confidence to keep going (Willie Nelson should be finished soon).

Sundance · 18″ × 24″ · Fabric collage portrait · 3rd Place, Art Quilt, 2026 North Idaho Quilt Show