I hear Harvey Fierstein’s inimitable rasp as soon as I enter Cotton Candy Fabrics quilt store in Connecticut. The walls are lined with vibrant fabrics and colourful quilts hang from the ceiling. On any given day you’ll probably find the 73-year-old five-time Tony winner here, among a chatty cast of crafty women and gay men.
Fierstein took up quilting in 2009, partly inspired, he says, by his enjoyment of the cable TV show Simply Quilts, but also because of the Names Project Aids Memorial Quilt. It was to be displayed in Washington DC, and he wanted to make panels for two of his close friends who had died of the disease. He has been prolific ever since. He shows me photos of his creations on his phone: an LGBTQ+ rights quilt featuring pink triangles, yellow stars of David – the “Jewish badge” – and Nazi-saluting skeletons; Fierstein with his two dogs; some horny, phallic trees he dreamed about; and an even hornier nude portrait of a young man (an Amazon delivery driver, apparently).
