Quilt based on ³Last Supper²
to be displayed in Princeton
Posted 6/26/03

'The Supper" Quilt will be on display at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 401 South Eighth Avenue, Princeton, Sunday, June 29, during the Sunday morning worship service at 9 a.m. Artist Dr. Donald Locke will talk about the quilt during the coffee hour and will also be present that afternoon when the quilt will be displayed at a special open house at the church from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The public is encouraged to attend either function and refreshments will be served throughout the afternoon in Immanuel's Fellowship Hall. A free-will offering will be taken for the Princeton Food Pantry and ELCA World Hunger.

It took Locke, a semi-retired dentist from Waxahachie, Texas, 2 1/2 years to make this 15-by-6-foot quilted interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci¹s ³Last Supper² painted 500 years ago on the wall of a Dominican Cloister in Milan, Italy. While Locke was creating this beautiful quilt he was still working full time as a dentist in Texas. Locke used 350 different materials to create this life-like scene and 51,816 pieces of one-half inch cotton fabric (some hand-dyed, others from as far away as Scotland) were pieced together by Don and machine quilted by Linda T'aylor of Melissa, Texas.

³The Supper² was made with the help of a computer generated image of Leonardo's masterpiece. A picture of the Last Supper was enlarged many times over until blocks of color (pixels) appeared. A printout of these pixels became the template that helped Locke to determine the color placement of fabric needed.

Locke and his wife Marilyn enjoy displaying his quilt at churches and quilt shows all over the United States. They have never been in Minnesota before. ³The Supper² Quilt will also be on display June 27-28, 2003 at a Quilt Show at the East Ottertail Historic Society in Perham, Minn.