Individual Artist Project Grant

I learned from many skilled elders in my community. Many of these women are gone now and I feel a responsibility to pass along their skills to others. I realize that this is a personal, culturally-specific journey. I offer it not as a comprehensive view of the breadth of quilting history but as the particular pathway that I followed. The two video courses I released this summer include narrated video footage where I demonstrate and explain my work. They also include lengthy unnarrated footage where I work at the quilting machine. A typical online course would extensively edit or even remove this footage, but I know this is valuable content. It's similar to a digital version of an apprenticeship, making it possible to watch a master craftsperson at work. This extended footage gives students the opportunity to peer over my shoulder while I work. It shows the rhythm of my work, and how I solve problems and make design decisions dynamically. Quilting has been a life saver for me. It has accompanied me through the ups and downs of life and has allowed me to provide for my family. By providing captioned, streaming video content that is available 24/7 unbound to a particular geographic location, I can increase access to this material.This project will result in: 1. a wholecloth quilt demonstrating a range of traditional styles and techniques that influenced me as a young quilter 2. a narrated, captioned video documenting design through completion of this quilt 3. a long-form, unnarrated version that allows the viewer to see a fuller, uninterrupted view of the quilting process 4. a narrated, captioned gallery of traditional hand quilting samples 5. a web-accessible streaming video course containing all of the above I taught myself longarm machine quilting from books at the public library about hand quilting techniques. I then grew my skills by learning from experienced community elders. By adopting these intricate, traditional hand techniques I developed a style and method that was unique to the machine quilting world. This approach set me apart from other machine quilters working at the time and led to a long road of opportunities to exhibit, teach and publish. My approach was unconventional when I began my work. Because it's based in the hand quilting tradition I'm considered a traditionalist in the quilt world despite my work with machines. I'm known for my work in hand-stitched applique quilts and other traditional skills, and for my free-motion work with a type of quilting machine called a "longarm" where I use the needle of a quilting machine like a drawing instrument. I mix traditional techniques with modern methods. I have a deep appreciation and knowledge of quilting history.The above list of deliverables will be completed by September 30, 2022. A draft version will have a limited release in August 2022. I will host a public artist talk and viewing at my studio and will reach out to a select group of other quilters for one-to-one conversations. I will gather feedback from these sessions. The final release will incorporate what we have learned from their suggestions. After the final release, web analytics will be gathered and we will be listening for further comments and suggestions. The core team will discuss lessons learned and plan for future projects.