Schokker dance

My third quilt in our book-series is about the Schokker dance.

There were four higher parts on the island Schokland. This is where the people lived in small villages or neighborhoods.

Very often, when the water level was high, the parts between the neighborhoods was too wet to use. Even the path between it was too wet to walk on. This is why a small walking board was built between the villages. This walking board was about 2 miles length.

Imagine with rough sea they had to walk on this small board, just a few inches above the water level with high waves. The main thing was when people came from both sides and had to pass each other half way on this walking board. They had to hold each other at the waist and twist slowly to continue the way to the other village. This is called the “Schokker dance”.

This walking board was also used by young lovers to meet. This was a legal way to have physical contact.

There is a story about the bakery’s wife: she was so fat nobody could pass her in a proper way. She sent the maid first to clear the board before she would step on it.

The background fabrics are hand dyed. I traced the couple from a picture of my book on white fabric. Colored it with intense pencils and gel medium. I appliqued it on the background.

The whole piece is free-motion quilted.