Quilting on Fire Island

I traveled home yesterday from our family summer break on Fire Island,NY. Point O’ Woods is an interesting place and the more time I spend there now as an adult and mother, I’m compelled by the depth of the people who I’ve past on our rickety beach bikes over the years. As I am developing further my interests and connecting them to my work it has been satisfying to find I have been surrounded by people who share similar passions beyond relaxing in the sun and a perfectly timed gin and tonic.

I have always been fascinated by the crossover between utilitarian objects, craft and art. Pottery and quilting are clear examples but this is really the case with all interior objects. How we experience our environment and the objects that we use can connect to the human soul on many levels. When I saw that my neighbor Becki Moe Kay was putting on a quilting workshop, I got the kids to camp and made sure I was there.

The Quilting Tradition

Becki discussed how she was brought into the world of quilting more than thirty years ago. Her mother-in-law’s passion for quilting inspired Becki to give it a try, just as women throughout history have passed the tradition on through their families.  Becki, also went over the basic steps of quilting and we all got started on a small project I’ll tell you more about later.

Quilting has been a way for artistic expression over the years.  Becki told us of how when feed sacks started being made out of fabric, because it held the feed better, women started re-purposing the fabric and making quilts. When feed suppliers started putting prints on their bags because of the popularity of this practice, women would flock to town with their husbands to help pick the patterns for the next family quilt.

The tradition of quilting has always brought together women in a room. This contemplative process inherently builds community, as women discussed the trials of the day while their needles moved silently through the batting. Our little group was no different, and it was in this community of women that I learned of Molly Upton. My favorite pieces of her work are shown above.

Molly Upton was one of the originators of art quilts. Art quilts deviate from standard patterns and strive to be primarily a work of art on fabric, rather than a fabric bedspread done artistically. It’s because of pioneer artists like Molly Upton that a visit to a modern day quilting show will show as many varied landscapes, characters and abstractions as any contemporary art exhibit. Molly Upton was self-tought and broke away from the traditional quilting patterns of yesteryear, to create amazing pieces of art. I felt such a loss to hear that Molly had taken her own life off the Golden Gate Bridge, imagining the sadness that is the dark side of the art she created.

Quilting and Community

I asked the women at the group why we felt so connected to these handmade pieces of art, despite their original utilitarian purpose. Quilts are inspiring, organic, and give us a sense of history. There is something timeless in re-purposing leftover things and making something beautiful. It’s meaningful that such a practical art can last for generations and generations. Like a photograph, the moment in time that the stitches were stitched still exists as we use the quilt to cuddle up next to a fire with a good book, or stand gazing at the medium of an amazing artist whose gifts to us all ended too soon.