The Best of Sewing with Nancy

During today's Nancy's Corner segment, learn how women's achievements are documented in history due to the International Honor Quilts. Shelly Zegart, co-founder of the Kentucky Quilt Project and the Quilt Alliance, joins us today via Skype. Good to see you again, Shelly. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy. Thank you, Nancy, for having me. This quilt that our audience is about to see is quite impressive. It's very large. Could you explain how many blocks or triangle shapes are in this quilt? Well, we call it "540 Stories and 1 Magnificent Quilt." So, you have 540 two-foot triangles all hung together with Velcro, some vertical and some horizontal. And it's interesting how they nest together so interestingly. We usually think of quilts as squares or rectangles and this is quite stunning. Right now, it's being housed in Louisville, correct? Yes, that is correct. It belongs now, through a donation from the person who started the project, to the University of Louisville Hite Art Institute. And online, they'll be able to see it, as well as find out when it will be on display. That's correct. It will be on display at some point soon. Now, the purpose of this quilt is to honor memories of women, some women who have been recognized nationally, internationally, and some who probably didn't get a lot of recognition. But in this quilt, they're being serviced and they're being recognized. I've used that word a lot. Let's talk about some of the quilt squares -- not squares -- but triangles, that are in this honor quilt. Well, each panel's been made by a different woman or group honoring another woman or group. So, you have quilts that recognize Mother Teresa. There's one that is just amazing, that is the Akron, Ohio Steering Committee for a Sojourner Truth commemoration. Yes, it's very detailed. Very detailed. And then, there's one that I just love that has a tree in the center and around the side,

appliqued in it are the words

"I am the stem of my own rose "and the root of the rowan tree." Throughout all these blocks, I keep referring to them as blocks, but all these quilts that are in a rectangular shape, there's such a variety of technique, and then a message, that is relayed throughout the quilt. That's correct. It was really initiated by noted artist Judy Chicago to extend the spirit of her monumental and best-known work, "The Dinner Party," as it went on its world tour in the 1980s. It is a lot of different techniques. And they are assembled with Velcro. So, when it's stored, it's stored individually -- not individually -- but groups, in boxes. So you have a number of themes where exhibitions could be put together just based on a variety of themes, as well. This is no small undertaking, I'm sure, to assemble or to put on display. That's for sure. I've seen it one time when the University got everything out and hung it. It filled the entire gallery, all three walls, because they had to figure out which ones were the point was up and which ones the point was down and see where the gaps were so that when they actually plan an exhibition, they have some idea of what they're looking at. That gave people an opportunity to really look at them carefully. And one person, Dana Jones, who is a quilt journalist, as well, has been to Louisville and started to research the stories of some of these amazing triangles. Each one was required to come with documentation. So we have both the triangle itself and why that particular person made that piece with that theme. You know, Shelly, it's so important that you have that documentation, but also, it's a good lesson to us as quilt makers, as seamstresses, to make a note of why we made this, for whom perhaps, and under what circumstances. I think it's a lesson for us all to learn from. That's absolutely correct, and that's what I've been doing all my life with quilts. The beginning of the Kentucky Quilt Project, the Alliance for American Quilts, the Quilt Index, all of it is about documentation. We cannot lose our history. And we do not ever want to you know, have women's work erased, as Judy Chicago would say. Well, I know that will not happen, and I thank you for being our guest on Sewing with Nancy and sharing this remarkable exhibit. Thank you, Shelly, for being our guest again. Thank you. And for those of you watching, thanks for being part of this second program of "Change-Up Patchwork." We'll have one more show to show you ways of working with traditional blocks, making some changes, and how you can be the quilt designer. Go to NancyZieman.com and you can rewatch this episode, this interview, and find out more of all things Sewing with Nancy. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now.