Touring quilts are the ones out wandering in the world.
I enjoy the large impact of a good touring quilt. My first larger-than-my-own-life quilt project involved Quilts-on-Stilts. Soon after, I launched a Pop-Up Tour of a Quilt-in-Progress because it was so time consuming I thought it might never be done! (Spoiler alert: I finished that one and it’s off on a journey in Australia for a long bit.)
Touring quilts are influential. They invite conversation. They reach an audience much wider and diverse than I have in my small town. I’m so happy to share quilts in the bigger world.
The other thing I like is teaching about making quilts. It’s a way to spread the love and joy of quilting, of message making, of using your art and your voice as a social force for change. I mention a couple of those projects here too.
Have you seen a quilt that makes you question our world yet?
Window Words Workshop.
My workshop called Window Words was one that you can take at home at your own pace.
You learned to make a high-impact, easily-read, hand-lettered, fabric banner that you could hang in your window, put on your bathroom door or hold up at the local rotary to let the world know your thoughts and dreams.
Click on the button to request this workshop for your community.
Sun Bath Quilt Tour
A self-guided driving tour of community sourced quilts on display for a day throughout the City of Easthampton
This project drew more than 250 visitors throughout the day, included more than twenty quilt hosts and was supported by the Easthampton City Arts Grants program during the summer of 2020. We hope it may grow regionally in the future.
Peace through Piecework.
Find Your Happy Place, Quilts as a Social Force, Quilt Collaborations
Peace through Piecework is a twelve week maker workshop using fusible collage in the high school classroom. Sponsored by a Massachusetts Cultural Council STARS grant, I was excited to debut this project in the Easthampton High School in 2020.
False Dichotomy
(I Don't Fit In Your Box), 47 x 59, 2017.
A commentary on inclusive policy practices for all people, including folks whose gender expression doesn’t fit into a particular box, this piece has toured with the national show: Threads of Resistance and then with Studio Art Quilts Association global exhibition: Opposites Attract.
Elevate Art. Quilts on Stilts.
A traffic calming project call went out to the artists in our little city. A fan of the circus and an avid quilt maker, I submitted a plan for a slow and steady, legal in the cross walks, parade of quilts carried by men on stilts with a slow stitch sit-along- bring your own chair style. Folks brought quilts for the parade and their own handwork projects to participate. We’ve never seen anything like it since. Traffic did slow that day.
Pop-up
quilt-in-progress tour
When I first started making this quilt, the one inch hexagons were the bane of my existence. I really wanted to find a way to share my work and have the process be as valued as the product. Submitting grants to multiple towns enabled this pop-up quilt-in-progress tour of a complex piece as it developed, inviting conversation along the way. It was in the early days of instagram. There’s only one hashtag!
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Maple Street School
2nd grade quilt project
I spent a few days with the second graders talking about contrast, pattern and placement. They did a little mark making and we put it all together to create two quilts for the school office. They continue to hang there today and those second graders are now in the high school classes I’m teaching.