The Common Thread Quilters:
A New Chapter
May 6 - September 3, 2000

Theresa Early, Cathy Nieman, Linda Smith, Mary Underwood and Darra Williamson
With Guest Artist Christine Porter

     Patchwork quilting at its best has always been a virtuoso flash of needlework skills, color choice and pattern arrangement. Dating at least to the ancient Egyptians, the technique has been a utilitarian one, combining a taste for adornment with a desire for warmth. As the name suggests, two needlework types are used. The first is Patchwork, in which different pieces are joined together, and, secondly, Quilting, a method of evenly fastening together several layers of cloth in a decorative manner. Spreading to Western Europe on the heels of the Crusades, quilting skills were brought to Colonial America by English and Dutch immigrants who applied their skills to both bedding and clothing. Quilting was largely women's work; deprived of the opportunity for extensive formal schooling, young women used quilts and samplers as practice to develop important skills they would need in later life. The term "domestic art" was used, perhaps inadvertently, to degrade the aesthetic value of the work.

     Many contemporary quilters, of which the Common Thread members are outstanding examples, provide a much-needed readjustment of our understanding of this form. The members are from the Boone/Blowing Rock area; Christine Porter lives in Bristol, England, and is the editor of the British Publication, Patchwork and Quilting. They do not "do beds." They move their work away from the horizontal idea of the quilt as a pretty blanket, size it down, and rephrase it in a vertical format. They force us to see the quilt for what it always was --- even though historically it was called "women's work" and "craft". They force us to see it as art. And, as with all art, it is involved in a continuum that is dependent upon the past for its own place. Thus, in the work of the Common Thread quilters, the visitor will see quotations from earlier styles --- shading, repetition of pattern and traditional forms --- but they have all been simmered in the Boogie-Woogie stew of the responsibilities that the members, all professional women, share with most of us today. Sunbonnet Sue, that happy icon of our happy imagined past, has been replaced by Sushi Bars and Caffeine Highs and Social Climbers. But quilts, properly read, have always been personal and contemporary images, telling us as much about the creator and her times as about the creation. And here is where the work of the Common Thread Quilters proves itself to be surprisingly traditional because for all of the modernness of the pieces, we can still see the lives of the makers between each stitch.

     Some of these quilts are for sale. The price range is from $300 to $1,000. If you are interested in a particular quilt, please contact the artist directly.

Links:
 Images 1-12  |  Images 13-24  |  Images 25-33