Wouldn’t normally post an advice column under #QuiltingNews but this question has a quilting spin
I made quilts for all 16 of my niblings. It took almost decade. Some kids waited longer than others 🤷♀️ but they got their quilt when they got their quilt and nobody ever pressured me or complained. There’s just got to be something else going on that the letter writer didn’t share
Haven’t come across a proper news article on this quilt/craftivism exhibit, but Shannon Downey mentioned it in her newsletter and if you are in #Illinois it looks like a great one
If you are near #Lincoln #Nebraska, Chawne Kimber and Celeste Butler will be speaking Friday 6/20 at a free event
Kimber, of course, is widely recognized, but I was unfamiliar with Butler's work (she's on my list for next #BlackHistoryMonth's #CelebratingBlackQuilters though now)
https://news.unl.edu/article/quilt-museum-holding-artist-talk-for-juneteenth
In what's got to be the least surprising news ever from the world of quilting - the quilters featured in the MO prison documentary have been overwhelmed with fabric donations
Can't help but wonder how much butterfly fabric they received? 🦋
https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/the-quilters-netflix-documentary
I've boosted a few posts about the AIDS quilt exhibit in London, but haven't linked to anything under the #QuiltingNews hashtag. Here's a couple of recent articles - Huck has better pictures of the quilted panels, but the BBC has personal stories about some of the people memorialized in the project
https://www.huckmag.com/article/largest-ever-display-of-uk-aids-memorial-quilt-opens-at-tate-modern
I think I remember this winning MQG quilt from last year, but this is a good story of its creation before and its journey since QuiltCon
https://www.quiltfolk.com/journal/one-year-after-an-uncomfortable-choice-for-best-of-show/
Hat tip to @web_goddess for sharing it first
More quilt craftivism in the news!
This one is a longterm project related to the #Gaza genocide done by a queer activist/artist collective in Wales. Their Solidarity Quilt is incredible and there’s close up pics of some other works in the full exhibit. (Learned a lot about Palestinian artists by reading the article too)
Original post:
https://toot.wales/@NationCymru/114663540061906810
Thanks to @Janet_52square for the heads up
Catholic school kids in Australia sent the new pope a quilt - there aren’t very good close ups in the articles, but you can see both sides in the first
Airing tomorrow (June 7) at 6pm on #KPBS here in #SanDiego
(It seems to be streaming if you have Passport or check your local PBS station, I’ve seen ads for it in various other US cities)
The Quilting Women of Gee’s Bend
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2025/06/06/the-quilting-women-of-gees-bend
I saw the headline about the Big 4 pattern makers being liquidated last night, but it wasn't until I read this quilter's blog post that I realized the implications. Spoiler alert - not good.
https://dendaria.home.blog/2025/06/06/is-home-sewing-being-systematically-destroyed/
More press/reviews for the Routed West quilt exhibit at Berkeley’s BAMPFA
“Routed West is, in a word, dazzling.”
I’m really starting to feel I’m missing out not being close enough to visit this one
https://www.kqed.org/arts/13977115/bampfa-routed-west-african-american-quilts-review
I saw my local Michaels advertising they now carry fabric*, but didn’t realize they were going to acquire JoAnns private label merch too
*I have no idea where they put it in the store, space was already at a premium 🤷♀️
Nice write up with lots of pics of the new Berkeley Art Museum quilt exhibit celebrating the Brackens/Byrd family of quilters
I really enjoyed the stories about how some family members tried to not quilt, but the tradition kept (and keeps) drawing them back
https://archive.is/EyG9Y#selection-979.306-979.371
Link to the show itself which opens June 8 (with great photos!) -
https://archive.is/o/EyG9Y/https://bampfa.org/program/routed-west
Just learned there’s a community memorial quilt project dedicated to *all* those lost during the Irish/British Conflict (as they just call it the conflict in the article from Belfast, I’m not sure I have the name right. But maybe that’s the point - it’s all conflict)
The #AIDSQuilt has inspired so many memorial quilt projects. I’ve never really thought about the ongoing, outsized impact Cleve Jones has had on this art form
https://belfastmedia.com/eleventh-panel-of-rfj-remembering-quilt-is-launched
Detailed write up about a Colorado quilt exhibit celebrating Japanese-American quilters from 1994 that’s been brought out of storage and updated
Revisiting fairly recent quilt exhibits this way is just such an interesting idea to me, like revisionist history for quilting. Especially poignant given some of the quilt blocks touch on Japanese immigration and internment, which hits me a bit differently today than it would have 30 years ago
https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/history/colorado-japanese-womens-quilt-project
Article claims to be satirical, but these days 🤷♀️
https://www.ungerreview.com/harvard-restores-funding-after-record-setting-quilt-auction/
Bicentennial quilts from the Bronx are now history themselves. I feel so old!
But, yeah, although I was quite young, I remember the big celebrations in 1976. Feels weird that places are memorializing the bicentennial instead of getting ready for the 250th, but we may not have a country to celebrate next year anyway
https://www.riverdalepress.com/stories/a-celebration-of-america-and-the-bronx-in-fabric,182581?
Found this quilt exhibit because of a news article, but I’m linking to the museum page itself because it has more quilt pics
These are quilts from the #Boston Museum of Art on loan to the Frist Museum in #Nashville TN
I’d love to know more about the Zouave quilt and really wish a few more of the contemporary quilts were pictured - if someone goes, please share!
https://fristartmuseum.org/exhibition/fabric-of-a-nation-american-quilt-stories/
This was fun - I’ve never been to any of these quilting cities, but there were some new ones that have made it to my bucket list now
(I checked to see if this was AI generated and it doesn’t appear to be, but if someone else knows this outlet and has concerns, I’ll take it down)
The Barefoot and Pregnant quilt sold for more than twice the auction estimate
https://live.swanngalleries.com/lots/view/4-GOXQK3/laury-jean-ray-1928-2011-barefoot-pregnant
(Thx to @web_goddess for posting an update
