The Sochi Olympics patchwork quilt

My husband, who works for Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, and I always have fun looking for crossover topics between his line of business – sports – and mine – art and quilting. Here’s one! Have you noticed the beautiful graphics at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia? It is a patchwork quilt!

I absolutely love it. You can go here to read more about it, and see examples of the beautiful handcrafts from Russia that went into the design. Here is information from the press release:

“The Olympic patchwork quilt, developed by Bosco’s creative department and given to the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, will be the official Look of Russia’s first Winter Games.

Our goal was to represent a diverse range of emotions and feelings, connecting concepts like Motherland, Family, Culture, Time, Olympism, Peace, Nobility, Friends, Memory, Honour, Dreams, Beauty, Freedom, Pride, Warmth, Happiness, Greatness, Reliability, Victory, Creativity, Hospitality, Creation, Future, Russia, Planet Earth.

Every region in the world is proud of its unique origins, and it is no different in Russia. That is why there are so many different local traditions, songs and crafts that highlight the individuality of their creators, each valuable in its own right. Bosco had a wealth of choices to represent Russia’s rich diversity, but in the end we settled on something familiar, warm and welcoming: the patchwork quilt.

In the concept design, every patch was infused with the history and personality of traditional crafts from each of Russia’s 89 regions: in a single tapestry we combined Uftyuzhskaya painting and Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns and the flowers of Pavlo Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting and Khokhloma, Yakutsk patterns, fabrics of Ivanovo and other distinctive Russian patterns. That is how we arrived at a modern, distinctive and unmistakeably Russian Look of the Games.”

I’d kill for a jacket with these graphics (but at 19000 Russian rubies, the equivalent of more than $550, I think it is out of my price range!). You can check out the apparel by the company that designed it (BOSCO) here.  

I have several handcrafts from Russia, brought back by friends and family. But I really want to go to Russia now, so that I can collect more!