CMA Quilt Stories Inspired by “Quilting a Future”
To go along with the theme of storytelling as presented in Quilting a Future, we wanted to hear about YOU and your experience with quilts, whether you create them, cherish them, or even if you were moved by a particular work in the exhibition.
Please continue to share your “Quilt Stories” here
A Labor of Love by Abraham Bonowitz
Among other things that make up her successful and interesting life’s history, my Wife’s Aunt, Doris Baker-Ryen, is a quilter. One challenge that quilters have is that they accumulate fabric. Doris has a whole walk-in closet just for her accumulated fabric. (In a previous life she was sought-after for her custom-made draperies.)
A few years ago Doris was looking for a way to use her passion to help others, and landed on providing quilts for children in the foster care system. She got in touch with Gallatin County (MT) CASA/GAL Program, Inc. — Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children, and for the fourth year in a row, she has donated dozens of quilts that are given to children as something filled with love that they can have as their own to take with them on their journey through a system that is filled with fear and uncertainty.
It is the purest form of charity, when the donor does not know the recipient, and the recipient does not know the donor.
Several summers ago (2021), Doris added 40 more quilts to the over 100 already donated, and she timed it so that we could be there when she put them all out so that neighbors, friends, family, members of her quilting club and a representative from CASA could come see them all before they are handed over.
And now you get to see them too. I posted them all on Facebook, here.
The event shifted with the winds of a brewing rain storm, and that added a bonus. Moving off the fence to a covered area, everyone got to enjoy a view of both sides of each quilt, with commentary from the artist herself. Enjoy!
[UPDATE: As we sat around with the family later in the evening, Doris got a call from CASA. They needed eight quilts right away, including for four infants!!! Because of the weather, the usual transfer did not happen yesterday, so those will be delivered today.]
Quilt Story by Marta Bradley
I have been quilting for about 30 years. Up until 2020, those quilts have been made as gifts. It has always been a joy to try to capture a part of someone’s personality into a blanket while also infusing a bit of my own as the creator. I am also a musician, and in 2020, as with so many others, work stopped. Music isn’t just my work, but creating and sharing that passion is like air for many musicians. When that stopped in 2020, I needed an outlet.
People who sew made masks — lots and lots of masks. With that mask making came a lot of scraps, and my original intention was to make a bag with all the scraps. But the hits kept coming—and there was one thing in the news after another, and the very fabric of who we are as a nation seemed to be unraveling. I saw a picture of a young boy protesting, and I decided to make a quilt block depicting that. I had no idea what it would lead to, but each block seemed to feed something in me that I was missing with the loss of performing, and each month brought with it something new that broke my heart.
By the end of 2020, I had created a quilt called “2020 Unmasked.” It indeed used fabric scraps from masks. It contains blocks depicting protestors, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, John Lewis, Dr. Fauci, Health Care Providers, Fire Fighters on the west coast, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, teachers and students online, my own son’s high school graduation, a sewing machine for the mask makers, musicians on their balconies playing for neighbors, and more. I reached out on Facebook to ask my friends what had gotten them through the pandemic — and to give me words they would like to have sewn into the quilt. The borders of the quilt depict the road of 2020 and there are many small things along the way. The dashes of the road are made from mask scraps. There is a roll of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, bleach, road side stands for books, a drive through testing site, a food pantry, Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s jerseys, a loaf of bread, my daughter’s viral TikTok video and many small reminders of of 2020. A few examples of words quilted into it include love, peace, sanitize, protest, worship, and create. It was a labor of love and was cathartic to make. Sharing each block along the way and being able to ask friends for input made it even more special.
