Preserving memories in thread with The Creator’s Cottage

Presented by PBS Wisconsin and Nancy Zieman Productions, The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show has been an annual Midwest hub for quilters in Wisconsin and across the country for over 20 years. The event returns to the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Sept. 10-12.

Catrina J. Sparkman, artistic director of The Creator’s Cottage, will present “An Artist Talk: The Stock I Come From” with The Black Threads Quilting Collective at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11.

PBS Wisconsin spoke with Sparkman about her work at the Creator’s Cottage and what attendees can expect at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. Ticket sales and class registration are now open at quiltshow.com.

PBS Wisconsin: What is The Creator’s Cottage?

Catrina J. Sparkman: The Creator’s Cottage is a makerspace located in south Madison. We’re a unique makerspace in that we focus on writers and artists. Every day that we’re open, there’s always a writing prompt of the day and there’s always a tea of the day in the apothecary.

Just about anything you can think of, you can do it here at The Cottage. We have a fully equipped fiber art studio space with lots of spinning wheels, looms and quilting.

We have a classroom space, and in 2024 we opened our printing press. We are now the only makerspace in the nation where an artist can conceive a book and leave with professionally printed copies of that book. And, now because we have been doing the work that we’re doing in memory care, we opened our doors to caregivers who need time to just get away and replenish.

Story Quilt from Black Threads and The Memory Collectors, artwork by Cynthia Woodland.

PBS Wisconsin: Tell me about the Black Threads Quilting Collective.

Sparkman: I wanted to recreate the whole concept of the quilting bee. You know, a lot of things happened around that quilting frame. People would share their hopes, their dreams, things that they were struggling with. It was just a really beautiful, communal process.

So I brought together various women artists. One is a calligrapher, another is a mixed media artist, a songwriter, a poet, an international painter, a quilter and then me, the one who dabbles in everything.

I said, “You know what, we’re gonna start a quilting group,” and they said, “Catrina, we don’t know how to quilt.” I insisted, “It’ll be fine.” So we met for a year, we told stories, we gathered together and we learned the process, and it was this wonderful, beautiful, organic thing that happened.

PBS Wisconsin: The Black Threads Quilting Collective will present “An Artist Talk: The Stock I Come From” at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. What can attendees expect?

Sparkman: We took the time over our initial year as a collective, and we told family stories. There was such a beautiful generational variety between the women in this group. So when we talk about “The Stock I Come From,” it’s the lineage and legacy that I come from. It’s about family. Who we are in the world has a lot to do with our roots.

There will be a special exhibit of quilts from The Black Threads Collective at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show called “The Stock I Come From,” and during our special evening event, each member of the collective will share the story of their quilt.

You can also visit The Creator’s Cottage in the vendor mall at booths 433-34.

Story Quilt from Black Threads and The Memory Collectors: artwork by Catrina J. Sparkman.

PBS Wisconsin: What is “The Work of Remembering”?

Sparkman: Coming out of COVID, we saw a lot of cognitive regression with our elders, particularly if they lived alone. Many of the artists in our community were faced with parents or loved elders in their family who were experiencing some sort of cognitive decline. So much so that we started to do a little bit of research on it, and what we found is that cognitive decline is on the rise for everyone. But in people of color communities, particularly African American communities, we’re outpacing white Americans at 100% at the development of Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias. With so many people in our community struggling with this, we said, “Okay, what can we do?”

We started forging partnerships with The Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research and African Americans Fighting Alzheimer’s in Midlife (AA-FAIM), and coming up with a program that could help mitigate some of these issues. One of the things that we found out is that when you do art — and you do it in safe spaces where there’s laughter, love and creativity — it develops different pathways in the brain. It keeps the brain supple and juicy as you’re learning and growing. As a result of our research, we came up with this art program, which is the Memory Collectors Storytelling Project — fighting Alzheimer’s with art. This is “The Work of Remembering.”

PBS Wisconsin: Are there any other projects that you would like to share?

Sparkman: We’re getting ready to take the Memory Collectors on their annual cultural heritage trip. It’s a great trip. Last year, we took them to Gee’s Bend, Alabama, for the Airing of the Quilts Festival. We also visited some key historic sites like Selma, and The Legacy Museum in Montgomery.

This year, we’re going to Louisville and Kentucky. We’ll visit The Little Loomhouse in Kentucky, which is the oldest woman-owned makerspace in the nation. We’re also going to Paducah, and we’ll check out The National Quilt Museum there.

Watch Sparkman at the 2025 Great Wisconsin Quilt Show

Image credits: Catrina J. Sparkman, the Creator’s Cottage/Ironer’s Press.