I’d forgotten about the fun, recorded phone chat I had a few months ago with Elizabeth Townsend Gard until I received a reminder that it was about to become available. Dr. Gard, a Tulane University law professor and avid quilter, heads up The Quilting Army, a group of quilters that studies copyright law in relation … Read more
In the early 1970s, I was a young bride earnestly making a new home out of an old farmhouse seven miles from the nearest town (Winterset, Iowa, county seat of Madison County). Not yet a mother or a quilter, my leisure time (when I had any) was spent embroidering flowers along the hems of my … Read more
Liz Porter and I were in our mid-twenties (both of us mothers of toddlers) back in 1976 when we met in a beginners quilting class offered through Iowa State University Extension in the small town of Winterset, Iowa. In no time at all, we were team-teaching ourselves—partly because there was local demand, and partly because … Read more
Once upon a time, while meandering through the Egyptian Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, I noticed an elevated sarcophagus—without a lid. “Goodness,” I thought, “a person could easily reach up, drop any sort of thing in there, and no one would ever know.” My imagination went to work, and … Read more
The weekend’s forecast is for sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s—ideal weather for a jaunt to my hometown, Winterset, Iowa, for Iowa Quilt Museum’s annual Airing of the Quilts. You’ll feast your eyes on hundreds of quilts on display from 10 to 4 in dozens of locations, many of them outdoors. Quilts will … Read more
Last October, I shared the exciting news that MONUMENTS, a new film by Jack C. Newell*, had won spots in a number of (virtual, natch, because of COVID) film festivals—the Nashville Film Festival and Heartland Film Festival (Indianapolis). MONUMENTS was inspired by my short story, “My Ashes at The Met,” and I had the pleasure … Read more
If you could choose just one quilt from the approximately 6000 in the International Quilt Museum’s vast collection and make it your own, which one would it be? A gorgeous Baltimore Album? An exquisite French whole cloth? Grace Snyder’s amazing Flower Basket Petit Point patchwork with its 87,000 tiny pieces? I was recently given the … Read more
Here in aptly-named WINTERset, we’re having quite the sporty winter. Around here, even before the last snowflake hits the ground, guys are out there, “pushing snow.” Pushing snow is not the same as removing snow from one’s sidewalk with a shovel. It involves a pickup with a blade on the front, and bags of snowmelt … Read more
On November 3, 2020, I stepped outside my door at 5:45 a.m. and walked the four-block distance to First United Methodist Church for my election worker debut. (Because of COVID, Winterset Precincts 1 and 2 were combined into a single polling location.) I wore a face mask I stitched myself (two layers of batik with … Read more
Growing up, my family changed houses only about four times that I can remember. We moved from Iowa, where I was born, to Kansas City, where I started school, then to Friendswood, Texas, and after that to Houston, where I graduated from Bellaire High School in 1967. As is typical, I relocated numerous times in … Read more