Sylvia Plath Quilt

Here they come, the outriders, on their hysterical elastics. If I stand very still, they will think I am cow parsley.

– Sylvia Plath, The Bee Meeting.

Irreverent and observant, Ross Palmer Beecher gravitated toward the poetry of Sylvia Plath because, as she says, "She's dark and I'm dark." Beecher spent two years composing and hand stitching a quilt to honor this American poet. At the center are two lines from the poem "Lady Lazarus": "Dying is an art. Like everything else, I do it exceptionally well." The stitching and patches are loaded with references—to bees, to dying, to graveyards and to another woman's compulsive behavior. Since making this quilt, Beecher has gone on to create quilts from unconventional materials to commemorate many different heroes and sheroes and offer her own version of American history. A visit to her studio reveals her unflinching magic.