I considered myself growing up with Prince since we are about the same age. Just like many people who have followed Prince since the beginning of his career I found great joy and connection with his music and lyrics. My BFF Twyla and I attended our 1st Prince concert together, the Dirty Mind Tour. During this concert Prince threw ladies panties into the audience and I caught a pair, just happened to be in the 3rd row! About 5 years later I had my car painted a custom purple that Prince would have loved.
Prince did 21 days at the Forum in Los Angeles my BFF and I being right down the road in San Diego we drove up for 3 of the concerts. Not the best seats but we were in the house! At that timed we vowed that our bucket list will include front row tickets to a Prince concert.
Unfortunately, that would not be. Next best thing: Celebration 2017; to celebrate Prince and our friendship we packed our bags and headed to Minnesota as our 60th birthday present to ourselves. It was amazingly emotional. We were in the house and the rainbow over Paisley Park told us he was too!
After attending Celebration 2017 and on a family trip to Las Vegas I had to see the “Revolution” again. I convinced my brother and son to go with me. My son said watching me sing, dance and smile “was everything”.
Even with all these celebrations I still had a sense of grief and started making Prince tribute quilts to process my feelings. I usually start with a pile of fabric and let the spirit tell me which way to go. For example, I thought “Sometimes It Snows In April” was going to be “Purple Rain”. I prefer to work with scraps of fabric left over from other projects and my BFF who also sews always brings me interesting pieces of fabric. She loves when she sees her scraps incorporated into one of my quilts.
Una Renee Walton lives in San Diego , CA. She is a retired civil service employee, and a fabric artist who loves to travel and dance. She serves her community in several non-profit organizations.