Americana Quilt #34, 2020

“Americana Quilts” is a growing series of textile-based artworks that started when the pandemic put everyone’s lives on hold, and BLM protests surged. At home in my studio, I went back to my roots and my sewing machine, made over 300 masks, and then this series of art quilts. The “Americana Quilts” series developed while researching America’s history of racism and how white women, like myself, have played a role in abolition, education, suffrage, and protest. During these civil rights movements, white women and Quaker women created quilts to support their causes by making banners for protest, fundraising, or as a display of solidarity. The “Americana Quilts” color palette started with the idea of referencing flesh tones of the American population. I collected over 40 colors of both second-hand and new fabrics to cut up and quilt together. The geometric patterns and the combination of new and second-hand materials reference the quiltmakers’ traditions and histories in the US. Repeat patterns have been a thread throughout my entire practice through different projects and mediums as my color palette shifts through time.