Do you watch PBS? If so, check your local listings for the Quilting Arts TV series! This show is hosted by Susan Brubaker Knapp & my three segments focus on how to make a great quilt coat, improv piecing, and Native American Star quilt history. If you don’t have Quilting Arts TV on your local PBS station, visit the Quilting Arts TV site.
Textile Talk on Native American Quilts
Textile Talks are free and open to everyone on YouTube! You can watch one I hosted with Carolyn Ducey, the International Quilt Museum Ardis B. James Curator of Collections. Take a walking tour through a pop-up exhibit of many different quilts from the collection. You’ll see one of the oldest known Indigenous quilts, iconic Hopi quilts, Navajo story quilts, and a Star quilt made by Lula Red Cloud. Lula Red Cloud is the great-, great-granddaughter of Oglala Lakota Chief Red Cloud. Learn the story of two Red Cloud Star quilts made 105 years apart!
Quilter on Fire Podcast!
Episode 119 – Brandy Maslowski – host of the Quilter on Fire Podcast – invited me on her show to talk about quilts, books, magazines, travel, history… and it was great fun. The show is live today – June 6, 2023. Check it out. Go to quilteronfire.com/podcast
The Calling of Quilt Collectors
Quilt collectors play a critical role in the circle of life of art. When museums and collectors purchase a quilt, the work of the artist is immediately validated, and the quilt obtains a monetary value that did not exist before. This lecture will explore the collections of major antique quilt collectors such as Joanna Rose, Eli Leon, and Robert & Ardis James — and why their vision and passion are so important to quilt preservation. In addition, you’ll be introduced to the collections of Robert & Helen Cargo, Frank Klein, Jack Walsh, and Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi. Hear the stories of these collectors and how their passion spurred their hunt for quilts. ADD ON FOR MODERN GUILDS: A titanic shift in the Modern Quilt Guild has taken place in recent years as quilts exhibited at QuiltCon are acquired not only by big-time collectors and museums, but also by fellow MQG makers. Learn who is collecting whom and why this matters. Lastly, hear tips on how to have your own quilts acquired by collectors or museums.
Ten Modern Masterpieces
Teresa Duryea Wong and David Owen Hastings will explore and dissect 10 influential modern, masterpiece quilts. You’ll fall in love with these quilts — and we’ll explain why.
WHAT MAKES A QUILT A MASTERPIECE? This is a great lecture to discover more about modern quilting, and how art and quilting are inextricably intertwined. We’ll reveal how five key qualities combine in different ways to create spectacular results: scale, color, subject matter, technique, and innovation. See masterpieces made between 1990 – 2015 and experience the genius behind these exquisite quilts. Plus, Teresa and David will share a flash review of a select group of winning entries from past QuiltCon conventions. Quiltmakers are Alabama quilter Yvonne Wells; consummate innovator Jacquie Gering; the incomparable Chawne Kimber; beloved mentor Gwen Marston; colorful Australian Brenda Gael Smith; Argentinian star Cecilia Koppmann; minimalist perfectionist Carson Converse; Japanese master artist Yoshiko Jinzenji; engaging and inventive Erick Wolfmeyer; and iconic Nancy Crow. If you didn’t get to hear our lecture at QuiltCon 2023 in Atlanta, this is a great way to bring the experience right to your guild. Contact Teresa or David to book and get two presenters for the price of one!
Sewing & Survival: Native American Quilts from 1880 – 2022
Sewing & Survival is a thoroughly researched narrative based on original sources, diaries, personal letters, and other notes highlighting Native American voices. Indigenous Americans have been sewing, weaving, making pottery and other crafts for thousands of years. Starting in the late 1800s, a fascinating shift took place as some makers turned their needle skills to quilting. To uncover the story of how quilting arts first took hold in the 19th century requires a look-back at a tumultuous period of American history to a time when Native American culture was under attack. Indigenous lands were taken away, missionaries swarmed onto reservations, children were forced into off-reservation boarding schools, and there were countless injustices forced on Native individuals. Remarkably, in spite of this chaos, quilting emerged as a preferred form of needlearts, and this book will explain how that transformation happened. While quilting skills were forced on some women, others came to quilting willingly. Equally compelling is the fact that quilting remains popular in Native communities today, and in fact, quilts are the cornerstone of Indigenous give-away traditions. In addition, numerous makers have turned their artistic talent to creating gorgeous contemporary art quilts and powerful story quilts that are coveted by museums and collectors.
Sewing & Survival: Native American Quilts from 1880 – 2022
Soft cover, 172 pages
9 x 11 inches
Richly illustrated with over 60 quilts, dozens of stunning historical images, and portraits of collectors and artists.
Publisher: Third Floor Quilts
For every book sold, the author will make a $4.00 donation to the American Indian College Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization.