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Winners of the 2018 Arts & Humanities Commission Award for Visual Art: The Hummingbird Stitchers Quilt Guild by Kristen Welch and Ilse Severson In my dining room, a quilt cross-stitched by hand adorns one wall. My grandmother spent years sewing the roses and greenery onto a crisp, white background. In my office hangs a small, African-themed quilt of rich purples, oranges, greens, reds, and gold that I made from scraps left over from a quilt I made my mother. In a bedroom, a quilt made of pieced stars assembled out of a variety of patriotic fabrics hangs on the wall. None of the blocks line up, but the reds, creamy whites, and blues pop against a bright white background. My ever-changing, imperfect, eclectic, but much treasured collection is not unique. Quilts are an important part of our lives in America. In fact, quilts are one of the most common types of folk art, and they are still made by busy Americans of all ages and of all backgrounds who love the challenges of piecing them together. Quilts are treasured and passed on in families. They tell our stories; they also tell the stories of those who shaped us. A museum curator once said: “Examining a quilt is like reading a historical document…The quilt tells the story of a time and the story of a life, sometimes multiple lives.” So, what is it about quilting that inspires so many women (and even some men)? This January, the Hummingbird Stitchers Quilt Guild won the Visual Arts Award from Sierra Vista’s Arts and Humanities Council. Ilse Severson, a Cochise College student, joined me to interview Gail Staples, Wendy Seals, and Janet Wilcox before the awards ceremony began. We discovered that these women had been quilting for decades. But when we asked about the quilts they had made, they first spoke enthusiastically about the quilts they had given away. Recently, the members had made over two hundred 64
