Black at Work examines how quiltmakers represented in the International Quilt Museum collection have utilized the color black as a visual or conceptual element in their textiles. It positions black as a serious and active representational tool with the power to change or enhance the way we see, perceive, and understand the world around us.

“Red is a neutral,” isn’t just a saying for Freddy Moran. She puts it into practice!

Freddy didn’t start quilting until she was 60 years old. Her daughter in law signed them up for a quilting class. She initially thought she wasn’t interested, but she was pulled in. Early on in her quilting journey, she was drawn to color, and used it with abandon. Her quilting philosophy is, “if it’s not fun, why are you doing it?”

“10 colors don’t work, but 100 do.” Freddy Moran.

New York quilt collector John (Jack) M. Walsh III and art curator Penny McMorris together have established a singularly important collection of studio art quilts. Seeking innovative and extraordinary vision, they acquired pieces by leading art quilters of the Studio Movement, including quilts featured in the Top 100 Quilts of the Twentieth Century and by honorees of the Master of the Medium award from the James Renwick Alliance for Craft. Walsh also collects work by emerging artists.

Paula Nadelstern is known for her use of intricate symmetrical prints in kaleidoscope-themed quilts, employing a distinctive approach that obscures, rather than defines, the seams. Able to find patterns in anything, everywhere she goes, some of Paula’s greatest inspiration comes from her travels and places that are special to her, such as the ceiling of the Spanish Synagogue in Prague in the Czech Republic or the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, USA. In her art, Paula filters every image of inspiration through a kaleidoscopic lens.

“When one faction of American society is excluded from the master narrative

of our collective histories, the whole society loses.”

Quilts by Black quiltmakers always existed within the greater canon of American quiltmaking as it developed in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Quilts, especially those with a narrative element, have been a particularly vital tool that Black makers use to illustrate Black History. 

In Winter of Loss, quilt artist and poet Joan Schulze portrays the heartbreaking experience of losing her husband, Jim, to dementia. In brief moments available while caring for him, she found solace in creating unique quilts and collages and expressed her complicated feelings through evocative poetry. 

MJ Kinman likes to tell people that she makes the biggest gemstones in the world, but instead of using the hardest substances on earth, she fashions her gems from the softest – cloth. The adventure started 30 years ago when an image of a gorgeous gem captured her imagination. As a new quiltmaker, she was unsure of how to transform that image into a quilt, but she knew there had to be a way. She began searching for the right techniques and, after seven years of research and experimentation, made her first gem.

Salley Mavor: Bedtime Stitches consists of the original artwork for Mavor’s latest book, My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World. The series of sculptural embroideries celebrate cultural differences and highlight the universal theme of children sleeping safe in their beds. For My Bed, author Rebecca Bond created the book’s poem and Salley Mavor illustrated accompanying scenes which bring children and their varying surroundings to life.

Anne Burton was driving when she received the call with test results. 

She already knew that her two-year-old son, August, had a tumor in a lymph node, which was wrapped around his facial nerve. Yet, after three months of scans and consultations, the cause was elusive. The latest results were in: the tumor was growing quickly and had to be removed. August’s surgery was in 10 days. The nurse told Burton she could bring a quilt to comfort her son in the hospital.