Table Of ContentPritchard pages FM-3 4/27/07 10:23 AM Page i
Uncommon Threads
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The Ohio Quilt Series
Ricky Clark,Ellice Ronsheim,and Donna Sue Groves,series editors
Quilts ofthe Ohio Western Reserve,by Ricky Clark
Uncommon Threads:Ohio’s Art Quilt Revolution,by Gayle A.Pritchard
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Uncommon
Threads
Ohio’s Art Quilt Revolution
GAYLE A. PRITCHARD
Ohio University Press
ATHENS
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Ohio University Press,Athens,Ohio
www.ohio.edu/oupress
© by Ohio University Press
Printed in China
All rights reserved
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper Ī
Cover art:Reach for the Stars,.Cynthia Lockhart." x ".
Cottons,blends,rayon,taffeta,lamé,leather,suede,metallic
cording,braid and fabrics.Machine-pieced,appliquéd,embel-
lished,hand-stitched French bias.Photo by Jay Yocis.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pritchard,Gayle A.,–
Uncommon threads :Ohio’s art quilt revolution / Gayle A.
Pritchard.
p.cm.— (The Ohio quilt series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-:----(pbk.:alk.paper)
ISBN-:---(pbk.:alk.paper)
. Art quilts—Ohio—History—th century.. Art quilts—
Ohio—History—st century. I.Title.
NK.P
.—dc
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Publication of Uncommon Threads:Ohio’s Art Quilt Revolution
has been made possible in part by the generous financial
support of the North East Ohio Regional Quilt Council.
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The Vowel Book:Table ofContents,.Clare Murray.
" x ".Silk screen,stamping,painting,machine
stitching on canvas.Photo by John Seyfried.
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
The Groundwork for a Quilt Revolution
Ohio’s Art Quilt Pioneers:The Beginning of a Movement
The Big Bang and the New Universe
The Second Wave:Art Quilt Pioneers of the s
The Millennium:A New Century of Art Quilts
Conclusion
List of Quilts Illustrated
Notes
Bibliography
Index
vii
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Color Blocks #,.Nancy Crow.." x .".Cotton,hand-dyed by the artist,resist-dyed squares by Lunn
Fabrics.Cut and machine-pieced by the artist.Hand-quilted by Marie Moore with pattern marked by the artist.
As Crow’s improvisational approach developed,she says,“I kept practicing until I taught myself to cut shapes
directly out of the fabric without templates,without even knowing ahead of time what the overall composition
might be.”She has kept this work in her personal collection.A detail was used on the cover of The Complete
Collected Poems ofMaya Angelou.Photo by J.Kevin Fitzsimons.
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Preface and Acknowledgments
The initial impetus for writing the untold story of questions and follow-up e-mails and for the gener-
the emergence and evolution of the art quilt move- ous giving of their time,searching for and sharing
ment in Ohio came as the result of a stimulating personal materials.Most of all,I celebrate the focus
discussion during a symposium held in Oberlin, and persistence all of them have brought to their
Ohio,in .Entitled “Pathways and Perspectives,” own work.They have created a legacy for all of us.
the symposium was a natural culmination of the I am honored to tell their stories.
Artist as Quiltmaker exhibition I had curated at the I would also like to acknowledge the following
Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (FAVA) with special thanks for their support and assistance:
that same year.In celebration of twenty years of ex- Judi Warren Blaydon,TafiBrown,Lois Carroll,
hibiting art quilts,all previous Artist as Quiltmaker Nancy Crow,Hilary Fletcher,Linda Fowler,
exhibition jurors,along with exhibition founder
Ricky Clark,were invited to attend the symposium
to discuss with an audience the history of the ex-
hibit and the evolution and future of the art quilt.¹
Inspired,I decided to dig deeper into the remark-
able story of how their contributions eventually
came to create the art quilt movement in Ohio.In
expanding my research for Uncommon Threads:Ohio’s
Art Quilt Revolution,two questions kept floating
through my mind:“Why Ohio?”and “What was
going on in Ohio during the ’s that led to the
emergence of the art quilt movement?”I was search-
ing for the obvious:big events and larger-than-life
people.What I found instead were the marks of
individuals pursuing their work,finding their way, “Pathways and Perspectives”Symposium,June ,,
and,eventually,finding each other.It was through Firelands Association for the Visual Arts,Oberlin.Artist
as Quiltmaker founder Ricky Clark and former exhibition
this confluence of independent individuals that the
jurors gather to discuss the evolution of the art quilt over
larger synergistic movement was born.
the past twenty years.Left to right:Penny McMorris,Nancy
I am deeply grateful to all the participants in this
Crow,Ricky Clark,Clare Murray,Susan Shie.Photo cour-
story for their endless patience with my interview tesy FAVA archives.
ix
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Howard Fraker,Susan Harvith,Susan Hoyt,Susan Manderen;Citifolk in Dayton,Ohio;Amy Bartter
Jones,Terrie Hancock Mangat,Ruth McDowell, and Cris Rom at the Cleveland Institute of Art;
Penny McMorris,Barbara Musser,Elaine Plogman, the staffat Ohio University Press and senior
Chris Pritchard,Haley Pritchard,Michael Randles, editor Gillian Berchowitz;The Ohio Quilt Series
John Seyfried,Robert Shaw,Susan Shie,and editors Ricky Clark,Donna Sue Groves,and Ellice
Charles and Ford von Weise.Special thanks to the Ronsheim;Ron Gargasz at WBGU-TV in Bowling
North East Ohio Regional Quilt Council for its Green,Ohio;and Lark Publications in Asheville,
generous financial support of this book;the Fire- North Carolina,for the use of its research library.
lands Association for the Visual Arts in Oberlin, Thank you,thank you,thank you.
Ohio,especially to Kyle Michalak and Betsy
x
