Homage to Quilters

My wife is a quilter, one of well over a hundred women and men belonging to the Northern New Mexico Quilting Guild.  You might think of them as a stay-at-home old fashion group of people content to sew and gossip.  Wrong.  They are an involved, aesthetically sensitive, socially minded, and diverse group of caring artists. In fact you can find organized quilting guilds in towns and cities across the country.

Earlier this year I attended the weekend gathering of 123 National Guard soldiers who recently returned from service abroad. They were being debriefed and informed about issues they would face returning home.  It was heartening to be among them as an observer.

As part of their homecoming, Guild members made a handmade personalized “Quilts of Valor” for each veteran. They were awarded as the last activity of the weekend.  To say that the soldiers were appreciative is to understate the obvious.

As I was leaving the hotel, I stopped in the washroom to ready myself for the trip home.  Two soldiers were talking.  “How was it?” one fellow asked the other. “OK. Better than I thought.” How’s that?” “It was those quilts. They made everything worthwhile.”

I didn’t say a word yet the image of those two highly tattooed muscular shaved head uniformed men cradling their quilts has stayed with me.  Their experience awakened within me a desire to pay homage to quilters.

My sculpture is highly cracked.  Following the Japanese tradition of artfully mending broken pots by filling the cracks with golden fill, I did the same.  The result was striking.  No wonder some potters were accused of breaking pots simply to enhance their value!

If you are not familiar with quilting as an art, click on the Gee’s Bend Quiltmaker’s website at www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers.