The
Quilt Treasures Project was conceived by The Alliance for American
Quilts to document the stories of a limited number of notable
individuals — quilt makers, designers, business people,
collectors, scholars, publishers — who were instrumental
in moving the 20th century quilt revival forward in some significant
way. Quilt Treasures seeks to make this documentation available
in a variety of media: digitally on the web through web portraits
and mini-documentaries and in archival form at MSU Museum. The
immediate priority of Quilt Treasures is to conduct video and
audio-taped interviews with as many of these individuals as possible
and to complete as many web portraits and minidocumentaries as
possible.
Read more about Quilt Treasures
The first Quilt Treasures web portrait featured Bonnie Leman,
founder of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. Eight other portraits
have been produced and five other interviews have been recorded.
"Bonnie
Leman is considered by many to be the 'mother' of the quilting
renaissance of the last quarter of the 20th century...and I would
certainly be one of the many! Without Bonnie and Quilter's Newsletter
Magazine, could the interest in quilting have become so widespread
in so little time? Not in my opinion! Had Bonnie lacked the vision
and the courage to expand the little black and white mimeographed
newsletter to a regular magazine, and later to a 4-color magazine,
would there be as many beautiful quilts made today? Not in my
opinion! Had she not created the magazine and expanded it into
a high quality publication that people all over the world eagerly
await every month, would there now be quilters in almost every
country in the world, from Singapore to Saudi Arabia, from Iceland
to South Africa? Not in my opinion! Quilters everywhere owe an
enormous debt of gratitude to this delightful, unassuming lady
from Colorado. I am honored to be able to say she is my treasured
friend." -- Karey Bresenhan, 8/21/02
Interviews Questions/Answers
The
immediate priority of Quilt Treasures is to conduct video and audio-taped
interviews. Below is a sample of these. Click the answer....
Visit
the Quilt Index to explore hundreds of historic and contemporary
quilts. The Alliance is grateful to our partners at MATRIX: The
Center for Humane Arts & Letters Online and Michigan State University
Museum who worked diligently to bring the Quilt Index online.