Liberian quiltmaking is a transatlantic tradition. American immigrants, many of them freed slaves and free-born black people, first brought their sewing and quilting skills to West Africa in 1820. They continued to practice patchwork and appliqué as they settled and helped build what would become the country of Liberia, which declared its independence in 1847.

Valerie Goodwin is a mixed-media fiber artist whose background as an architect plays a key role in her work. Her quilts are inspired by real and imaginary maps of landscapes and cities. Her compositions work on a number of levels, from close up and far away, as if an aerial view. Surface detail is created using hand and machine stitching.

Stitched Textiles from West and Central Africa

"I am not a collector. I am a treasure hunter. A collector always wants to better a collection. I buy only what I like and for no other reason. Quilts look better when you have a lot of them."

Mark Dunn, president and owner of Moda Fabrics, began his career in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1966 as a third-generation thread and yarn sales representative. In 1985, he received the “Man of the Year” award for the sewing industry from the American Jewish Committee. Dunn attended the University of South Carolina but has lived in Dallas, Texas for the past 33 years. His love for the quilting industry plays out in his personal life as well as in business.

Laura Petrovich-Cheney processes events that wear down spirits and materials. Like the passage of time itself, natural disasters remind us of our vulnerability and the inevitability of loss. Petrovich-Cheney crystallizes and commemorates the collective trauma of natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey, and the fires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In the aftermath of upheaval, she collects wooden debris: two-by-fours, strips of molding and trim, bits and pieces of boards that were once boxes or signs for family businesses, familiar brands, local institutions.

In 1941 Martha Ann Glenn was named Iowa’s Healthiest Girl Baby. Fanfare surrounded the prize, generating newspaper stories, congratulations from far-flung friends and relatives, and endorsement opportunities for Quaker Oats, Colonial Bread, and Meadow Gold Butter. Over the years, the line between memorabilia and actual memory grew fuzzy. Growing up amid the stories and images of herself as a champion, Martha thought of herself as fundamentally robust and resilient. She was always confident in her wherewithal to succeed. 

This collection of quilts and folk objects evokes the atmosphere of the south of France. Provençal needlewomen imbued their solid-color, wholecloth quilts with the light and abundance of their landscape. Inspired by the natural world and equipped with a vocabulary of ornamental motifs, they pulled miles of thread through layers of silk, cotton, and thick batting to create surface plays of light and shadow. Small items made of other materials—clay, metal, and wood—exhibit similar attention to the interplay of form and surface.

The theater of war is an unlikely backdrop for the making of quilts of dazzling beauty. Stitched with varying degrees of skill by soldiers, sailors, and regimental tailors, from a distance they seem exemplars of disciplined precision, each small piece of heavy wool aligned to the next with military regularity. As one draws near, though, it is hard not to sense the beating hearts of men in uniform striving for normalcy—even jaunty optimism—as they braved death and duty amid volatile landscapes in the Crimea, South Africa, India, and in Prussia, Austria, and France.

Velda Newman’s quilts are panoramic yet intimate. They are monumental microcosms assembled from the materials of fiber arts. Natural forms—flowers and fruit, fish and seashells, birds and butterflies—are depicted through the surface qualities of cotton and silk. Ranging from matte to satin, these fabrics suggest the textural variety of the natural world. Bits of wool describe the seams that are butterflies’ bodies—those physical centers of thorax and proboscis and abdomen and antennae. Essential as these parts may be, they are neither colorful nor cloth-like.