>> I just can't imagine not quilting. I love it. >> NARRATOR: Americans have had a love affair with quilts for over a century. Quilts have the power to bring us together, to tell our stories, to touch our lives. >> It's history. It's part of America. >> NARRATOR: American quiltmaking continues to flourish, ever-changing, adapting and evolving. >> I was moved to tears seeing these quilts, and then to realize mine was among them. >> NARRATOR: Join us as we celebrate "A Century of Quilts: America in Cloth." Funding for "A Century of Quilts: America in Cloth" is provided in part by Pfaff. Pfaff Sewing Machines, honoring a tradition of craftsmanship for the future of sewing, since 1862; Thirteen Moons Gallery, a contemporary art quilt gallery in Santa Fe; The Alberta Kimball Foundation of Oshkosh, Wisconsin; and by the annual financial support of viewers like you. >> NARRATOR: The 20th century was the century of the American quilt. In this era, quilts were transformed from traditional necessities to glorious works of art. Four national quilting organizations combined efforts in 1999 to search out the 20th century's finest quilts, the best of American quiltmaking. Each of the final 100 quilts was chosen not just for its beauty, but also for its contribution to the art of quiltmaking. Many of these landmark works were gathered together for the first time ever in Houston, Texas. It was the quilt show of a lifetime. >> What did you think? >> I loved it. >> Did you? >> It's like a candy jar. >> It was wonderful. It brought tears to my eyes to see all of these wonderful quilts just all together in this exhibit. >> I just thought it was fantastic. I came all the way from California, mainly just to see this exhibition, because when are you going to see it again? >> MIRIAM NATHAN-ROBERTS: A lot of these quilts I've seen, it's like old friends that I've never seen in person, or relatives you've heard about. And so many quilts, I've admired. I was moved to tears seeing these quilts, and then to realize that mine was among them. It's a play on the planes. You know, large planes of visual space, and have layer after layer, so it would look like you're looking through one space, and another, and another. And I have no depth perception, because I have one near-sighted eye and one far-sighted eye. So, most of my quilts deal with illusions of depth, because that's what keeps me from walking into things. And it works, in most cases, except in parking, where I go through tail lights a lot. I park by Braille. (laughs) It's probably my favorite quilt, still. And one of the things I like about it is I played with the loops so that some of them appear to be casting shadows. And then left some empty spaces, so you can see that they weren't really casting the shadow. And I like that sort of play. There's a kind of whimsy to it. And when I'm machine quilting them, I'm completely wrapped up in them and looking at each section. And it's sort of like falling in love with something. So, I get very attached. And I feel very much that, in quiltmaking, we all love fabric, we all got into it because of the love of traditional quilts. It's not that all of a sudden we came up with an idea. It was falling in love with the traditional quilts, and then taking it to express our time and our vision. >> NARRATOR: Falling in love with traditional quilts. Expressing a time and a vision. Throughout the 20th century, the best American quilts have done just that. The beginning of the century saw a revival in American quiltmaking. At its forefront: Marie Webster, America's first quilt celebrity. Quilts of the day tended to be busy and excessively-decorated. Marie Webster designed patterns of striking simplicity. "Grapes and Vines," reflects her innovative design sense, often looking to her own flower garden for inspiration. Hundreds of grapes, leaves, vines and tendrils were painstakingly hand-appliquéd using minute stitches. Although she didn't begin to make quilts until she was 50, once she started, her fame quickly grew. Inundated by requests from enthusiastic quilters for her patterns, Marie set up a mail order business from her home with the help of family and friends. Her pioneering business, the "Practical Patchwork Company" began by offering quilt patterns for sale at 50-cents a piece, and went on to meet the needs of American quilters for more than 30 years. Marie Webster-- Credited with quietly reviving the art of quiltmaking. This revival took root and flourished. In the American heartland, one Kansas community achieved legendary status as a hotbed of outstanding quiltmaking. Even today, those quilters are remembered as the Emporia, Kansas, phenomenon. Its leader: Rose Kretsinger. In the mid-1920s, Rose, who at one time designed jewelry professionally, turned to quilt making to help her through a time of sorrow. >> BARBARA BRACKMAN: When Rose was in her 40s, her mother was killed. And so, she had said she was looking for something to take her mind off her troubles. And she had found a pattern in a magazine about 1925, and so she started making quilts. I think she was quite innovative. Quilting is very traditional. And in the 20th century, a lot of people have tried to apply principles of fine art to this folk art. But Rose was one of the few people who was able to take the things she'd learned from jewelry design, a lot of art nouveau design, a lot of the naturalistic, very organic-looking flowers, very realistic flowers, and apply that to quiltmaking. One thing that was important about her was that she was a good teacher. If she had just worked by herself, and no one ever really learned from her, she wouldn't have influenced anybody. But she was always willing to draw up a pattern for somebody. She was always willing to give them advice on color. She was also very competitive. And I think entering a lot of contests gave her a lot of status. If anybody ever won anything in Emporia, you got a spread in the newspaper. It encouraged the quilters in that town to compete against each other. So, she was competitive. And yet, at the same time, she was generous, which is a nice combination. >> NARRATOR: Collaboration and competition. The community of quilters in Emporia, Kansas, labored to outdo each other with their needles. Among those competing with Rose Kretsinger for that coveted blue ribbon was Charlotte Jane Whitehill. >> BRACKMAN: Charlotte Jane worked for a living, which is interesting. People called her Lottie. She was an insurance agent. And apparently her husband had died and she took over his agency, which is an interesting thing to think of, a 50-year-old woman in the '30s tooling around in her car, settling claims, settling insurance. And that was what she did. And usually, Lottie made one for every one that Rose made. And now, occasionally she did do her own designs, and she did copy other things. But I think she was less of an innovator and more of a student and an excellent craftswoman. Josephine Craig is another very competitive woman who lived in Emporia. Josephine Craig was a farm wife, and retired to town in the '30s. And I've never seen any evidence that she made a pattern from Rose Kretsinger, so I think they were more rivals than compatriots. But certainly, the competition was friendly, I'm sure. >> NARRATOR: Competition among the Emporia quilters often took place at county and state fairs. Although many others made garden quilts, Josephine's stood out. Entered in the 1933 Kansas State Fair, the quilting on it was rated as "100-percent perfect." Unlike her Kansas contemporaries, Hannah Haynes Headlee did not enter contests, believing that exhibiting her quilts would lead to copies. Hannah loved being an original. Remembered as the first woman in town to own a bicycle, Hannah at one time supported both herself and her niece through her painting. >> BRACKMAN: Hannah was a very modern woman, and apparently she swore. Now, that's something Mrs. Kretsinger, I'm sure, never did. But quilting brought these people together. She took some of Rose's ideas of that combining fine art with the traditional technique of the fabric and did some pretty impressive things. I think if I could choose one quilt, you know, everybody probably has their one favorite-- My favorite quilt in the world is Hannah's "Iris" quilt. And it looks like a watercolor, because Hannah was a watercolorist. And what's amazing, is how she gets this translucence in things that you just don't expect out of fabric. So, Hannah was given a license to do non-traditional things by Rose, but she went off in her own direction. >> NARRATOR: Hannah Haynes Headlee, Josephine Craig, Charlotte Jane Whitehill and Rose Kretsinger. Four quilters of the Emporia, Kansas, phenomenon. Four quilters whose work captures what quiltmaking meant to a community and a time. >> ELAINE CARLSON: My mother had some friends years ago in the '30s. And they were quilters. And my mother became interested in quilting, and made a few quilts with conventional patterns. And then she told my brothers, two brothers, and me, that she would make each of us a quilt if we would bring her a pattern. Well, I had found a picture that I had liked several years before that. And it was a picture of a fairy standing on a dewdrop reaching over to a carnation, getting nectar, I guess, out of the carnation. So, I gave her that. She looked at it, and said, "That's not what I have in mind." But it sort of intrigued of her. So, she took the picture and put threads across it, and up and down, making one-inch squares. Then, she enlarged those squares to one foot. She made patterns from that, and then she made the quilt. The hair on the fairy is all solid embroidery. And then, in order to indicate the gossamer gown that the fairy wore, she used some crayon on it. She made mine in 1936. And it took her about a year to make it. She was... a wonderful woman. And she had been interested in art, she had painted pictures, both in oil and in watercolors. After she was married, why, she occasionally did some painting, but not too much, until she started these quilts. The work my mother put in on it, I can see her sitting there embroidering that hair and piecing it. So, it is a work of love to me. >> NARRATOR: Works of love. A child's favorite picture challenges a mother to create a lasting memory in cloth. In the 1930s, another quilter challenged himself in a different way. Albert Small, of Illinois, teased his wife and her friends about a quilt they had spent many weeks working on. In response, his wife, Eva, challenged Albert to try his hand at it, to see if he could do any better. Albert not only accepted the challenge, but set out to make a quilt with a record number of pieces. "Mosaic No. 3" is the last of three quilts he made in his life and contains 123,200 hexagons, each only a quarter-inch wide. Albert worked on it from 1941 to 1944, at a time when fabric was scarce due to the war. Every day, Albert walked to the dry goods store in town to check on incoming bolts of fabric, estimating that with careful planning and cutting, he could manage to get 6,000 quilt pieces from each yard of fabric. Although he was a man of many interests, once Albert took up quilting, he devoted four hours a night, every night, to his needle and tiny pieces of fabric. By day, Albert Small worked in an Illinois quarry handling dynamite. >> SARA DILLOW: Grace McCance Snyder is the lady that I refer to as the Queen of Nebraska quilters. Grace Snyder grew up in the sandhills area of Nebraska, on a ranch. And at the age of seven was begging her mother to have a needle and thread and some fabric. And while she would be out herding cattle, Grace would take her needle and thread and her fabric scraps with her, and would supposedly sit out on the edge of the haystack in the field as she watched over the cattle, and begin her career of piecing fabric together to make quilts. The "Flower Basket Petit Point" quilt to me is the ultimate in pieced quilts. It was made during World War II, over a two-year period. And this quilt, when completed, contained 85,875 tiny pieces that Grace had pieced together by hand. Each little block that was made, there were eight small pieces in that, and those small pieces when put together, were the size of a postage stamp. It is a magnificent piece. >> NARRATOR: Grace Snyder, the Queen of Nebraska's Quilters. Chicago had a Quilting Queen of its own: Bertha Stenge. Bertha received her formal art training at the San Francisco College of Art. After moving to Chicago and raising a family, she re-entered the art world through her quiltmaking. For 30 years, Bertha made at least one quilt a year, and achieved national recognition as her work was featured in major contests and publications. "The Quilting Party" is among her most memorable works. Incorporating vintage 1800s-era fabrics, Bertha rendered in cloth a folk painting of an early American quilting bee. In 1955,The Chicago Daily News dubbed Bertha Stenge, "Chicago's Quilting Queen." Her work continues to inspire quilters today. >> JINNY BEYER: A "Ray of Light" is a medallion-style quilt, which means there is a central focal point and then borders going out from that. It was a style that was popular in the early 1800s, late-1700s. And interestingly enough, I was very much influenced to make that quilt by another quilt that's in the exhibit, by Bertha Stenge, who did a medallion-style quilt. When we lived in India, our daughter was born. And we named her an Indian name, which is Kirian, which translated in Hindi means "Ray of Light." So, that's where I got the name for the quilt. It was very different from most of the quilts that were being made at that time. I think people looked at it in a little different light, mainly because it was dark, and it was a different use of fabrics, and a different use of colors. But I did that mainly because of living in India and loving the fabrics, and sort of having that influence from being there. The quilt will one day go to my daughter. I don't sell my work. I make a quilt just for personal satisfaction. I don't really want to sell it. It would be like selling a child, in a way, because you put so much time and effort into what you're doing. Every time I look at that quilt, there's one thing I would change on it. I knew it at the time, but I'd already made a lot of the outside of the quilt, and it would have meant re-making the outside, because it would have changed the size. But every time I look at it, I think I should have fixed it so it was right. And I tell people that. I say, you know, it's not going to take that long to make that one change. And you don't want to ever regret. I mean I would have-- There's little mariner's compasses that's set around the main point. And I would have put a little tiny border around those blocks, which I didn't do. And every time I look at it, I think I should have put a border around that. >> NARRATOR: As quilt patterns are passed down, traditions are preserved. Quilters carry on this legacy as they continue to find inspiration in the traditional quilts of the past. >> ELLY SIENKIEWICZ: "The Good Ladies of Baltimore" is a revivalist Baltimore Album quilt. And an album quilt is a collection on a theme, just as a photograph album, or a stamp album would be a collection on a theme. So, it's a collection of different blocks. They were made by the hundreds, as far as we can tell, the quilts, during the mid-19th century. And it's a mystery, because we don't know why so many of this complex style, in a small area, at a time when the population was much less than it is today. So, that caught my imagination and has been the passion of my later years. It's a group quilt. At the time each of us made it, none of us believed that we could do such a thing by ourselves. I even felt that perhaps we'd lost the genes for making such fancy work. They're very impressive and very labor intensive. Very beautiful. It was very exciting to find that we could do it. And I think we did it by breaking it into elements. That is, people start with lesson one doing a one-layer block, then they add a second color. And you basically learn things that get augmented. I think all of us loved the thought that we could work on one, that we could try it, but that we weren't taking on the whole quilt. I think the children value it and they're proud of it. The wedding quilt for my third child, Alex, he was 12. And I looked at him and I said, "Now, Alex, I'm gonna write on this, write things on every block. And what would you like me to write on it?" And he looked at me-- He's always been a sober child. He said, "Write: Duty, Honor, Country." So, I wrote: "Duty, Honor, Country." Now, he picked up something. He picked up something about quilts, because that's not something that you would just pull out of the air. He picked out that this was something very serious, and meant to tie the future to the past. I was very happy to see it chosen as one of the 100 best, because it symbolizes a revival of a style. And I think that that style has meant as much to the people who sew it as it's meant to me. It's heartwarming. >> NARRATOR: Our quilts tell our stories. Each piece of cloth carries a memory of its time; each quilt, a soft document of a life lived. When "A Century of Quilts" returns, we'll share these stories in cloth, as we bring you more of the 100 Best American Quilts. >> NARRATOR: The finest American quilts of the 20th century are works of great beauty, striking design, extraordinary handwork, spectacular piecing. But beyond their appearance, beyond the surface, these quilts tell our stories. >> LYNNE SPRIGGS: I see any quilt as a story quilt in that it is a reflection of the maker, and oftentimes has a narrative quality to it. We know that this quilt was made by an African American, presumably a woman. And it was made in Thomaston, Georgia. And it was created around 1900. On the one hand, it's the story of the Bible, which obviously the maker was very interested in depicting, and perhaps sharing for herself, for her friends, and perhaps for generations to come. At the same time, it's the story of her and her life. It tells us something about where she was living at the time. Thomaston, around 1900, was a small, rural, close-knit African-American community. Most people there were making their living, either as farmers or raising livestock. And so, it's no surprise, then, that the backing of this quilt is created from feed sacks, which was not uncommon. It's part of that sense of using whatever one has around one. And in this case, that was the material that was available, so she used that. So, we can learn things about stories that were part of her life, as well, everyday life. It was very functional. It was something for your family. It was a way to create beauty in your home. And it was also a way to preserve history at times, to record local events, to tell stories, and to continue those stories for future generations. >> FAITH RINGGOLD: I had this idea that I wanted to do this mixture of visions of African-American women and visions of African-American men. And call it "The Men," and call it "The Women," and show different faces of these people. Because of the way I see faces is coming from an African vision of the mask, which is the thing that we carry around with us. It is our presentation. It's our front. It's our face. Some people look at it and they try to figure, "Oh, it's a quilt. Well, I wonder how does she-- How does she stitch those?" They try to get it. They don't understand it's a painting. They don't get it. They're looking at it. They're standing right in front of it. But they're trying to make that all stitching. Because I think most people understand quilts. And not a lot of people understand paintings. But yet, they're looking at one. When they're looking at my work, they're looking at a painting. And they're able to accept it better, because it is also a quilt. This is "Coming to Jones Road: Part One." The connection is that when I moved here, I was confronted by a lot of hostile neighbors when I went to build this studio. So, out of the struggle to get to do it, I felt that so many other people have struggled to do things in their life, or have traveled across great barriers for freedom. I said, "Well, why don't I do a series in which I bring all my ancestors here, too." "Coming to Jones Road." And I'm bringing-- I bring all these people with. I ask you, and looking at this, doesn't it give you some feeling of people coming from somewhere to somewhere that are in some trouble, huh? They're not just on a nice picnic, right? "Then, one day, Barn Door was already in the fields when he felt a shaking and heard a rumbling. And then Aunt Emmy's voice came from deep in the Earth. Barn Door, the time has come to walk to freedom. I be waitin' for ya. God is on your side. You as good as free." "Coming to Jones Road, No. 3, Aunt Emmy." Aunt Emmy is the story. She's the powerhouse. You know, I tell the story of her because they're coming to Aunt Emmy. That's my great-grandmother. I was looking for an image of a woman that would really be as strong as Emmy needs to be. And then I saw this picture of my great-grandmother. And I said, "Boy, that's her." Her name was Betsy Bingham. She's the one who taught my mother how to make quilts. And she's wearing a dress like that and a hat like that. She's the heroine. She's the one, that when they get to her house, they're gonna be safe. She's got the safe haven. This one over here is the baby getting born. Because, I imagine, very often, when people are leaving one place and going to another place, frequently a baby was born. What the heck do you do when a baby's born? And this baby's born in the swamps. And that's a problem, but it's also very beautiful to look at. >> Does the baby survive? >> Oh, yes! The baby's name is "Freedom." Gotta survive. Oh, absolutely. Life is like that, you know, people can do magical things if they have to. "Tired as can be, the children commenced to run and play, their sweet voices ringing through the trees like bells of joy. We free! We free! Aunt Emmy got us now. We free. We free now." >> NARRATOR: Stories of a nation. Stories of a heritage. Stories of a family. In our quilts, we collect them all. Mary Pemble Barton, of Iowa, set out to pay tribute to her ancestors and their 19th-century journey to settle the country. Her "Heritage Quilt" holds in fabric, symbols of the pioneer life: women walking among quilt blocks, men with the tools needed to settle the wilderness, covered wagons, like those that carried Mary's family-- All moving in a westward direction. In one corner, a map detailing the route Mary's ancestors took across the country to reach their final destination on the plains of Iowa. In another, an inscription of family names, dates and places of migration. The center of the quilt reflects the central values attributed to those pioneers: love of god and love of country, symbols of freedom to attend the church of their choice and the emblem of their new homeland. Some 30 years later, at the age of 82, Mary wrote that she still looked back on that quilt with pride and joy. >> ANNE OLIVER: It's a replica of the early 20th-century ceilings, the tin ceilings. It was a cheap way to cover bad plaster. And my husband, who had been in college demolishing buildings, had seen a lot of colored ceilings. And he said, "Why don't you do a painted one?" And with his help, I got the feeling of what a painted metal ceiling would look like. Now, people, when they see it, say that's exactly what it looks like. So, he did a good job. And it was very reluctantly. Because he'd walk past and say, "That doesn't look right." And I'd say, "Oops, wait, you have to put something in its place. You can't just walk by and say, 'I don't like it.'" So, that's how I involved him. And then he did the dishes. He did the dusting. He did the dinner. So, he was a vital part of the combination. And without him, I never could have done "Painted Metal Ceiling." I was trying to make the people see that there's design everywhere: on the floor, on the wall, on the ceiling-- That the painted metal ceiling, when I sold make-up during the war in Woolworth's 5 & 10, I looked up at the ceiling. I saw the designs. And I lost out to going to designing school in 1946 because of the G.I.'s. But it stayed. It just translated into "Painted Metal Ceiling." I never forgot the designing. And when my husband said, "That's how it looks," I realized that I accomplished something that I honestly thought might be too difficult to do. And that's probably the most important-- The fact that it's history. It's part of America. And it's a 100 years. I mean, it's a 100 years ago, it was the turn of the century. I brought something back. And to me, it has gone beyond a quilt. It's part of our history. >> HELEN KELLEY: I married a Norwegian, and I fell in love with the Norwegian culture. And his grandmother spoke with the most beautiful lilt. She didn't want anybody to know it. She was-- She wanted to be an American. But she was a darling woman, and I decided I wanted to do something to memorialize her. I took a trip to Norway, and decided I wanted to see what they had in the way of quilting, which isn't much. And I was just about crushed. I went home and thought about it for a while. And I thought what I did see was a lot of wonderful weaving. When I put it together, the first thing I did since I couldn't do a quilt, because that's what I went to look for, was I said, "What's an American quilt?" Because the idea was that I wanted to have the Norwegian history turned into an American piece, because that's what our granny was. She turned into an American piece. It took me seven years to do the quilt, because I did a lot of research. And part of the problem was that everything's written in Norwegian. And I really, I took-- I studied Norwegian for years-- Don't speak a word of it. So, that made it kind of hard. I just kind of got under the skin of those old weavers that did those pieces, so I could understand what I was doing. I got really so involved, I was just driven to the point that I had basted it. It was in the quilt frame, and it was coming up Easter. And I got to the place where I was quilting the baby. And there were basting threads that went through the body of the baby. And I couldn't stand it. I cut the threads away so that my-- And my husband kept saying, "Helen, it's just a quilt. It's just a quilt." But it was more than that. It took on a life of its own when I made it. It was a wonderful experience. >> TERRIE HANCOCK: When I was in grade school, we were taught that the Catholic Church was infallible. And so, then, about the time that I made that quilt, they reviewed the list of saints. And they decided certain saints weren't really saints. That they couldn't prove that they ever existed or that they-- So they deleted them from the list of sainthood. So, when I heard that my favorite saints, like St. Valentine, and St. Christopher weren't saints anymore, I thought, "How could they make a mistake like that if they're infallible?" What you see, when you look at it, is this row of saints right up front. And then, as you look past them, you see a road going back into space. And then, in the sky above the saints, there's turbulence. It's like, there's lightening and planet balls flying around. And then there are holy cards floating in the sky, which are of St. Christopher. Those are transfers of those little saints that you put in your car. And I had those in my car. And that's what made me think about this whole thing, about St. Christopher, because he's the patron of travel. And so, the reason that I had those in my car was for protection. But it's like you're praying to a saint that they say maybe doesn't even exist. I used real people in my life to be the saints, like my ex-husband Divinder, is St. Michael casting out the devil, because he always tried to make me behave myself. And so, I made it-- He's like this, "Arrrghhh," casting out the devil. And then, St. Christopher is all grey. He's like a ghost, because he's not there anymore. And then St. Valentine, I cut him up into triangles. He's kind of floating out over the landscape. I guess I made them sad because it's supposed to be like, they've gathered here-- These saints have gathered here to mourn the passing of St. Christopher and St. Valentine from their ranks. Well, I still think he exists, myself. I don't believe there's no St. Christopher or St. Valentine. There's gotta be a spirit up there that's receiving all that stuff, from the people. And I know a million people that still have St. Christophers and still believe in St. Valentine. I made this quilt in my third-floor studio at my favorite house I ever lived in. When I think of this quilt, it reminds me of how much fun we had in that house, and working in that studio, and that time when I was still married. And it was a really-- It was great time. I haven't seen that quilt for about ten years. So, yesterday, I went down there to take a look at it. And I'll tell you, I almost started crying, because it made me remember where I was when I made that and all the things that happened in my life. And it's just, like, so dear to me. And it's thrilling to me that people are saying this is a really great piece of work, because the heart is in it. It's definitely laden with stuff straight out of me. I don't know if I have the nerve to tackle such a big idea now. You know, it's like innocent. Yeah, I like all that Catholic stuff. >> JONATHAN SHANNON: When I was 50, I suddenly had a lot of time, freedom. I have a degree in fine arts in painting, years and years ago. And I've always thought I'd go back to painting. Well, somehow, quiltmaking happened to me instead. And I'm totally enamored with the ability of using textile as a medium to create my artistic images or ideas. Well, I've always been fascinated with the graphic-ness of 1930s airplanes, the visualness. I'm not interested in flying them. But I think they're extraordinarily exciting design-wise. As a male quilter, I also liked that they might interest a lot of members of the public, who weren't particularly interested in quilts, but would become interested in the image, which would then draw them into quilts. And I would have husbands of quilters come up to me and say, "You know, I've never really been very interested in quilts before. But this one, because of the images, I begin to see what my wife's doing." And I thought, "Great, that's absolutely perfect." It has been a success if it's done that. All the time I was making "Air Show" in '92 and '93, people were dying right and left of AIDS. And these names were piling up. And I kept thinking about all the work we weren't going to see from playwrights, and dancers and poets. And I just felt that I needed to say something about that. I've always been a great fan of theDia de los Muertos, the Mexican festival of sort ofAll Souls Day. There's this wonderful sense of celebrating-- Celebrating dead friends and family. Keeping them close to you and keeping them real, without forgetting that they are dead. It's a wonderful concept of life and death. And when I had finished, I thought it was a really lovely piece. I was very happy with it. And so, I submitted it to the show in Paducah. And sometime later, I got a call saying that the quilt had been rejected, that while it was wonderful technically, the imagery was too disturbing; that their quiltmakers come to their show to have a good time, and not to be upset. I thought about that for a while. Then I thought about what I know about the history of quiltmaking. That the quilts that celebrate dead children and civil war husbands; and that do seem to have a great deal of tragedy behind them; and that somehow, quiltmaking is a way of working through that tragedy; a way to present it, to present your soul-ache sort of publicly, in an acceptable way. And that quiltmakers have always taken and shared and learned from those quilts. And so, there was a great deal of controversy surrounding that quilt and the ideas that it represented. I think it sort of solidified the feeling that quilts aren't just decorative objects, that quilts can serve intense artistic, or personal, or both, expressions of one's self. >> NARRATOR: Artists and quilters are not the only ones using quilts to express themselves. Nowhere is this more evident than in what has been called the most extraordinary example of community quiltmaking, the AIDS quilt. >> CLEVE JONES: Everywhere I go on this planet, people are making these quilts. There's love in it. There's hate in it. There's anger. There's joy. There's every emotion that we all go through is in that quilt. It's sewn in there. >> THOMAS BRACKMAN: Well, this is for my friend and partner of 13 years, Jerry Hannibal. And he made me promise when he died that I would make a panel for him. I'm not much of an artist. And I'd never even been to a fabric store before I started this. And I just started drawing. All of my family and Jerry's family and his friends all pitched in. There were 50 different people working on this quilt panel, all with a lot of love. >> JANNIS EVANS: Stephanie... (sighs heavily) She was a good friend. She was a friend. And she did a lot of outreach. She did a lot of programs for women. There's a poem that her husband wrote. Her husband died, also from AIDS. And he had written this poem for her before he died. And we decided to put that in on the quilt, also. >> KATHY DUNCAN: Although his life was very difficult for the last seven years, it wasn't for nothing. He will be remembered, and hopefully, others will know how much he was loved, and how much he loved. >> BARBARA TUMMINIA: I think it truly does represent who Robert is. And it makes me feel like everybody else is going to get to know my brother in a way, that I hope, how I knew him. >> What's it gonna be like to walk away from it today? >> It'll be a little-- It'll be hard. But then again, it'll be a kind of peace for me, because I know he's with many others, their quilts are here. I'm hoping he's looking down and saying, "Good job." >> And there will be moment when the last quilt is sewn in. I absolutely believe that. I don't know if I'll be here to see it, or you, or anybody who's watching this. But that day will come. We will defeat this. >> NARRATOR: When "A Century of Quilts" returns, we'll bring you more of the 100 Best American Quilts, as we meet artists whose work explores new definitions for this American craft. >> Funding for "A Century of Quilts: America in Cloth" is provided in part by Pfaff. Pfaff Sewing Machines, honoring a tradition of craftsmanship for the future of sewing, since 1862; Thirteen Moons Gallery, a contemporary art quilt gallery in Santa Fe; The Alberta Kimball Foundation of Oshkosh, Wisconsin; and by the annual financial support of viewers like you. >> NARRATOR: Throughout the 20th century, quilts proved to be the perfect canvas for self expression. Quilts served as a new way of seeing: imagining the possibilities contained in a bolt of fabric, exploring new definitions for what a quilt can be. Part of this change, this new way of seeing, can be traced back to the Amish quilts of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Quilts created to serve a community, came to be seen a generation later as art. >> BOB SHAW: Amish quilts are important and different, because they reflect, as a society and a culture, that is completely reversed from the rest of American society, in terms of its values. The Amish value community over individuality, and members of an Amish community will sacrifice individual expression for the sake of the community at every turn. In a typical "Diamond in a Square," there might be 25 to 30 pieces of fabric, very large. And this is another part of the way that the Amish express themselves in terms of community. Because if they were using smaller pieces, they would be drawing attention to themselves, in terms of their ability to put many, many pieces together, which is a sign of pride or vanity to them. Lancaster County quilts are typically made out of a fine, dress wool, which absorbs light in a way that cotton doesn't. Cotton tends to reflect light. So, they seem to glow from almost inside the quilt. And then, you get up close to the quilt, and you see this magnificent hand quilting that draws you into the surface of the quilt. Amish quilts have had a tremendous influence on contemporary quilters, particularly art quilters who reassess the quilt as a medium. Many of the art quilters, after seeing Amish quilts for the first time, they realize that quilts could be art. >> CARYL BRYER FALLERT: I started as a painter, and dabbled in a lot of other media. I then discovered the whole world of art in quilts, and really found out that this medium, for me, is much more expressive than paint. It goes way beyond paint, as far as the kind of images that I'm interested in producing. I can remember when I was in fifth or sixth grade, seeing movies in school about the solar eclipse, and these vast storms that happen on the surface of the sun sending rays of light hundreds of miles out into the dark sky. And I was just so fascinated by that image that it stuck in my mind for years and years, until I got the opportunity to interpret it in fabric. This actually was a fabric that I made from leftover dye. I dumped all the dye into a tiny little bucket, shoved three yards of fabric in the bucket and left it in the weber kettle in the sun for three days. And that's how it turned out. And it's really the only fabric in that particular quilt that is not a solid fabric. The rest of the fabrics are all solid colors. There are hundreds of them. On the back, I used up a lot of the leftover strips of fabric that I had from the front of the quilt. And I used the same strips, but not necessarily in the gradations that I had used on the front. I used up a lot of my leftover fabric, so there's actually a whole traditional circular quilt design on the back of my contemporary art quilt. Making this quilt was probably one of the most exciting quiltmaking experiences I've had. I really felt at the time that it was probably the best quilt I had ever made, and it probably still is. >> KATIE PASQUINI MASOPUST: "Rio Hondo" is the name of the river that runs from Taos, New Mexico, down to Santa Fe. And I was coming home from skiing at Taos Ski Basin in Santa Fe, and I saw this beautiful scene of the ice-cold water going down the river with the snow on either side. I got out of my car and hopped down and photographed it. So, it would really have been a really cold, white and blue icy picture. But I have these diagonal lines that go through it, that I interpreted in colors. So, it has the white background, but it has almost like these diagonals weaves that are done with blues and greens and purples and pinks, so it gives it sort of a magical quality. I've painted since I was a little kid. My parents encouraged each of us children to excel in what we were good at. And my brother and I were the artists in the family. I made traditional quilts. And then I decided that with my art background, I could start designing my own work. And so, then, it just feels like I'm painting with cloth now. It could be done in paint, but I enjoy doing it in the fabric. I work intuitively, choosing fabrics, sort of putting them up on a wall like a brush stroke. It just comes out in the end. I went into the show, and I was just so happy to see it, because I sold it. I sold it, and I haven't seen it for like five years. I waited till the white gloves were out of the way, and then I touched it and said hello. It was really nice to see it. It's still beautiful.I love it. >> MICHAEL JAMES: I, basically, am self-taught. And at first, I'd see quilts and I'd kind of imagine how they might of been made, and then try to do it that way. Same thing, nobody's ever shown me how to do a stem stitch, which is what I'm doing right now. And a real embroiderer would no doubt find fault with my stem stitch, but it works for my needs. It's the sky space. It was one of a series of pieces that had to do with sky. My wife says I have my head in the clouds all the time, figuratively, and I guess literally, sometimes. I looked up the dictionary definition of "aurora." And it said an atmospheric effect in which light is fractured into bands of color. And I thought that was perfect, because that was exactly what I had intended to do in the piece. I just start putting fabric together spontaneously, and kind of randomly, to just see if I can sort of put together some kind of combination that sparks something. And then, I start building a pattern with it and see where it takes me. This is a neat piece here... 'cause it's got these flashes of metallic that's light reflective. It almost looks like molten metal that was poured on the fabric. I never really looked at this one before. It's really nice. Quiltmaking, for me, is a pleasure. It's not-- Even at points when I've been frustrated by some surface that didn't seem to be coming together aesthetically, the time spent in my studio is the best time for me. I love making things. I'm a maker of things. I love that activity. I love the challenge of coming up with an idea that you can give visual form to. So, it's the best thing I do, I think. Yeah. I wish everybody knew that. It would make a lot of people's lives a lot happier, if more people did creative work with their hands. >> NANCY CROW: It was made in 1979, and that was the year I decided to become serious about quiltmaking. So, it meant that I put my looms away. I was a serious weaver before that. So I thought, "I can't do both." My whole career as a serious quiltmaker sort of started then. I always worked on the floor, because it never occurred to me that you could have pin walls. And so, I would lay out these gigantic quilts all over the floor, and walk on top of them. And I'd jump up on the table and look down on them. And then I'd get a big step ladder. So, that's probably what I remember, is my husband came home with pin walls. And he said, you know, "I'm tired of seeing you walk all over your quilts. Why don't you start working on the wall?" So, that's what I remember about that, probably more than anything else, being able to see the darn thing. About the time I finished that "Mexican Double Wedding Rings," that's about the time I was starting to think, "My gosh, if I can't figure out another way to work that's much more fluid, I'm not gonna make quilts any more, because I don't want to work this way." It's too-- The whole thing of making templates, of planning it out so much ahead of time-- It's just so intellectual, and not dipping into my emotions enough. So, I was trying to figure out how could I work more like a painter. That is, to think of that cutting tool almost like a paint brush. It means you have to have control over the shapes as you cut them, because you're cutting them totally by eye. So, it took me practicing, probably, from 1990 until about 1993, that I was starting to find my stride working that way. And once I started to realize that by working in this freer, more spontaneous-- what I call improvisational manner-- I was totally engaged with what I was doing. There wasn't a part of it that bored me, you know. And so, all of a sudden, quiltmaking became interesting again. I go at it like an artist. I think of this as my palette. So, I have to have these things visually in front of me to see. I have a friend who lives on another farm, and she just finally told me, I can't stand to come into your studio. She keeps hers pristine. I mean, there's nothing. She wants everything put away in drawers and cupboards, so it's all white walls and white furniture. But she says, "I am so overwhelmed when I'm in your space, I can't-- You know, I just can't stand it." And I just thrive on this, so. I used to spend a lot of time re-organizing my fabrics, but I don't do that anymore. I don't have time. I just need to get the quilts made. >> PAULA NADELSTERN: I make quilts because I love fabric so much. A lot of quiltmakers now, art quilt makers, create their own fabric, they want the fabric to speak for them. They paint it. They manipulate it somehow. I'm a very good shopper. I love to shop for fabric. I have access to the garment district in New York City. Plus, fabric is what drew me into making quilts in the first place. I don't sew very well, but I put fabric together very well. I use very ornate fabrics, partly because I just love them and can't resist them, and partly, because that's what helps me give the tremendous sense of activity that a kaleidoscope does. But also, since I'm trying to get that sense of spontaneity, that rare moment of serendipity when different pieces of glass find each other and are constantly moving-- So, by using a lot of beautiful patterned motifs, that's how I create that effect of there's so much to look at. There's the surprise, the symmetry, the excitement that a kaleidoscope does. There's a piece in there that I sort of borrowed from-- I didn't borrow-- I kept hinting to someone in my class how much I loved that piece of fabric until she finally gave it to me. (laughs) Yeah, and I feel that way about quilts. Every quilter knows what was going on in her life at that time. It documents the experience, you know, the background of life at that time, sometimes the joy, and sometimes the real sadnesses. I've been working on the kitchen table for the past 20 years with my featherweight. I don't have any space, anyplace to walk back and look at a wall. I really learned to focus on that kitchen table, on that space, and to see one single wedge. And I have no idea what it's going to look like until that wedge gets sewn together. The whole is always greater than the sum of it's parts. And because of this process, I get to be the one who makes the magic, and the one who is surprised. And I want that part of the process. Yes, they are difficult. They're difficult to make. And yet, at the end of it, I completely forget that pain and I just can't wait to start the next one. >> JANE SASSAMAN: My daughter's name is Willow. And we're good buddies and very similar to each other. And consequently, she takes things very seriously. And this is giving her a message to lighten up and have a good time, and not to think so hard about everything. And I think that's why people like that quilt so much, is because it is totally optimistic. I remember the day that I decided that I had to outline every flower with topstitching thread. I knew that was going to take another month of my time. But I knew that it would make the piece that much better. I guess that's my thing, is trying to make those pieces the best they can be before they go out the door, and then they're on their own. And that piece has really radiated so much energy back to me, that all of those hours, all of that six months of work was definitely worth it. And I look at that quilt today and I think, "Did I do that?" Because, it really is a rather overwhelming piece. I spend a lot of time. When it looks like I'm not working, I'm just sitting and staring at a quilt. That's what I call "squint time," because you're squinting at that wall to see what you think. And there was one time when Willow was small, that every time she would walk past my design wall, she would squint, because she thought that's what you were supposed to do when you were looking at the quilts. I'm always trying to jog the viewer out of that mundane, everyday existence. I want my quilts to celebrate, to get people's heads out of the mud and up to see more of the big picture that they're part of. Quilting has everybody, from that Saturday craftsperson to Picasso, and everything in between. That's what so interesting about quiltmaking. And you can fit in there somewhere. And that's the trick, to find that point that you fit in. >> LIBBY LEHMAN: It was pure joy to make. You know, some quilts, when you make them are problems. Or, when you start in making them, you encounter problems. This one was a breeze the whole way through. And it expresses the joy I get out of quiltmaking. To me, it encompasses all of my quiltmaking, because I came from a traditional quilt background. I made traditional quilts for the first ten years of quiltmaking. It honestly never occurred to me that you could change the pattern, or do anything different.The first time I ever did this type of stitching, I filled it in. I thought it was going to be so beautiful, and it was just flat. So, I remembered, back in kindergarten when the advanced people knew to take their crayon and color along the edges, that always was so impressive. So, that's what I do, except I do it in thread instead of crayon. That's what really pops it out and brings it to life. I don't work with a plan. And I tell my students, all you have to have is one idea. It doesn't even have to be a good idea. You just start, and then you do something else. And you do something else, until eventually, it turns out right. If you don't know how much trouble it's going to be, you don't dread working on it the next day. My family is very supportive. It's amazing how supportive your spouse becomes when you make money at something. So, he's thrilled with it. And he tells me-- He loves to fish. And I teach a lot, and travel a lot. He told me I was the envy of all his friends, because I'm gone on the weekends and I come home with money. So, he loves that fact. I think about that poor pioneer woman crossing the Rocky Mountains with one needle and bad light. Then you look in this exhibit and see the wonderful quilts they made with those tools. It makes you really feel humble. >> NARRATOR: A century of American quiltmaking. A century of American stories. A century of American art. Each quilt a unique, personal expression. Each quilt a legacy in cloth. Each quilt a celebration of the rich palette of American quiltmaking. >> LURA SCHWARZ SMITH: It's my hommage to the painter, Edgar Degas. And I did make this specifically for one competition, which was artistic expressions to work in the style of an artist that insires you. So, because I had learned this technique of a way to get my drawings onto fabric, I thought it would be very fun to choose Degas. And so, I chose to make one of his dancer-type images, but mixed in with the piecing and the patchwork. I like to search it out through the fabric. It's like the hunt, the chase to me. And all the serendipitous things that come up as I'm working, that's part of the torture and part of the fun to me. You know, you have to solve all those things, but they open up new avenues. So, I do sketches as I go throughout the process, often. But I mainly work it out with the fabric, what is good next to what. I seem to have to work, kind of directly. Every quilt seems to have a story. And that really catches me, I think. So, I think just the concept of being in a women's art field is really a great feeling. It's very important. I think it's a real special place to be. >> M. JOAN LINTAULT: "In The Grass," is a quilt that I put together in a new way that I started to work in 1989. Rather than sewing them in the traditional way, I made every piece separately, as a complete entity, and then sewed them together without a background on it. This was put together in such a way that the negative space was actually negative space. In other words, you could stick your finger through it, if you wanted to. As a matter of fact, the openings in the quilt-- Sometimes people don't even know that they're there. It's really interesting. People will look at it, and then not realize that they can actually see through it. I want that existence in space, where it looks like an actual object in space, but it really isn't. When I put it together, it's actually an engineering problem, because everything has to fit together and hang or lay flat. So, where I place things is very important. Sometimes, when I get the whole thing together, I have to rip out places, because there might be some force on it that I'm not quite sure exactly where it's coming from. So, I have to sit and look at it and try to figure out where it's being pulled. That's the most aggravating thing, because sometimes it takes me days to figure it out. I am very concerned as a designer or as someone who makes things, that my fabric be entirely my own. I really could never go to the fabric store and pick somebody else's work and try to fit them into my work. I'd rather start out with my own colors and my own fabric, and know that the message that I'm trying to get across goes right down to the level of the fabric, to the basic level of the fabric. >> JUDY DALES: It has to do with planets, something about the mystery of what's on the other side. I'd like to think that I'm dancing wherever I go, even if it's on the dark side of the moon. So, "Dancing on the Dark Side of the Moon" was the first really good quilt that I machine quilted. And I was nervous about it. Machine quilting-- People have this attitude, that it must be easier because it's faster. But it's not. It's very difficult to do well. And when you've already spent a lot of time and energy creating a quilt top, you don't want to mess it up by doing a poor job with the quilting. And even that, I'm thrilled with. I love the quilting on it. I like the way I quilted it. I like the way it looks. I just feel real good about this quilt. I'm good with fitting pieces together, anything that involves spatial relations. I'm good with color, but I'm not necessarily a painter. I don't draw terribly well, but I can work with shapes. I first got into quilting because I like the geometry. Quilting projects take on a life of their own. You begin the process, but about half-way through, you're no longer in control. The fabrics and the design are dictating the direction that the project will take. You have to give each one your very best shot, but then you have to say, "enough is enough," this one is finished. And if you're sensitive to that whole process, the quilt itself will tell you when it's finished. >> VELDA NEWMAN: I like to do things that really make a high impact when you see them from a distance, but still have a lot of detail when you look at them close-up. I'm really quite concerned about the composition and color, because that's the first thing you see when you come into a room. But I also like to have a few little surprises when they come up close. I wanted people to feel like they were right in the hydrangea bush and looking through it with flowers sort of dripped from the top part and burst up from the bottom. It's all hand-dyed, hand-quilted, hand-appliquéd, and really, I think, a very good piece. (laughs) If I might be so bold as to say. Actually, I've known how to sew since I was small, so I had the technical skill. And once I found out that I didn't have to put 50 squares all alike together, I decided that it was good for me, as well. >> CHARLOTTE WARR ANDERSEN: I like to do people in my quilts. That's probably what I'm most well-known for, is doing portraiture in quilts. And this particular one is based on a picture I took of my niece, Sharon. We were at a family gathering and the kids were all having a water fight. And Sharon was in the process of sneaking up on her older cousins and was going to splash them with water that she had held behind her back. She looked so innocent and fresh. And so, I decided to pull her out of the picture and put her next to a stream. I added a creature out of greek mythology. And she's a nymph who presides over lakes, streams, wells, water. So, by saying Sharon is a "Naiad," it means that all of us, the least of us are Naiads. We are all caretakers of our environment. I changed the liquid in the cup to something golden. And you can interpret this as either being a magic elixer, with which you choose to help and heal the environment, or you can you use it as a toxin, with which you waste and destroy it. So, that cup of water held in her hands represents the choice we all hold in our hands. I love quilts. Besides just being an object you can look at, it's something that you really want to touch. And that's why we have to have "Do not touch" signs at the quilt shows, because everyone wants to go wrap themselves up in them. And I like that about it, even though I do view my quilts as being an art object, and to be displayed rather than used, I like that it has the capability of having warmth to it. I have to confess, from the time I was a small child, I had always imagined being an artist, so I took all the art classes I could. And I ended up going to the University of Utah and majoring in Art. I'd always been encouraged before that, and the professor hated everything I did. And so, I felt like I'd failed as an artist. When I finally found quilting and started making those, it was like I'd found my art again. >> JAN MYERS-NEWBURY: These are pieces that I have leftover from other projects. It's sort of a puzzle to see which ones, which palette you end up putting together. When I was a printmaker in college, I used to sort of laugh when I'd go by the painting studios, because it seemed like the person would be on the bench looking at his painting every time I went by. I never saw him actually putting paint on the canvas. But now I realize I spend much more time looking at it than I certainly do physically sewing this thing. But that doesn't work there. I've always worked with dyed fabric, since the beginning of my quilting. 1976 was when I made my first quilt. And I was working with dark-to-light gradations at that time. So, all of the quilts for those ten years really exploited the fact that those gradations of color from dark-to-light really gave a lot of luminousity and kind of visual depth to the surface. And the quilt ended up being seven feet high and 11 feet long. A quilt that large wasn't without its issues. I do machine quilt. And I actually machine quilted that piece in four sections, joined them and then quilted over the joins. I was quite pleased that it worked out. I didn't know for sure that it would look like a seamless whole when I got done, but it did. Looking back, it seems effortless, but I remember that it wasn't at the time. I'm still using the same fabric and the same type of dyes. But for the last eight years, I've been doing this, with the distinctive linear patterning that you get in the fabric. It's very evocative. There are so many unpredictable things in the dye bath. It's sort of that combination of the predictable and the unpredictable that makes it so appealing to me right now. I can control it to a certain point, but then, it's the loss of control that I think makes the fabrics really interesting. >> MARGARETE HEINISCH: ...a celebration of Ausria's 100th Anniversary of name giving. And the idea behind it was I wanted to do something that everybody would recognize right away it was made for Austria, so I did the spring, summer, fall and winter in the corners. And according to the season, the flowers, too. And had a little life cycle with birds going through, and the bird nest and the eggs, and the birds come out. So, that was my idea of the life cycle. I worked three years on it. I learned about the different valleys. And even, it goes as far that the different valleys have different costumes. I just picked one costume of a certain province. I can still not believe it that I was chosen to be put on the wall and looked at. I look at it and I think I can't believe it, that I did something, I sewed something, and people think this is so nice that they chose it. My profession is porcelain painting in Europe. And when I do appliqué now, it's like painting with my needle. >> IRMA GAIL HATCHER: I got the set for the quilt from an antique quilt many years ago. And it's just what I wanted, that's why it's called "Conway Album," because it's not like the other Baltimore Album quilts. In a Baltimore Album quilt, the blocks are set side-by-side. And I put triangles, three different kinds of triangles, around each piece, each one of the little blocks. They're not set side-by-side. They're set on a diagonal and around the center medallion. I started sewing when I was 12. I didn't think I was an artist, because I could't draw a horse when I was in fourth grade. I never took any art classes. I really didn't know whether I could do art or not, but our children broke all of our Christmas tree ornaments. And we knew that if we were going to have something for trimming the tree, I'd have to make it. And I began making those, and people seemed to think they were good. And I just kept on. And then, it went into cross stitch and other crafts, until I got to quilting. And I haven't done anything since. I used to make all of my clothes. I have not stitched a thing. If I'm going to be remembered for one quilt, it's nice that that's the one. >> CHRIS WOLF EDMONDS: It was a period in the '70s, when I was doing a lot of pictorial quilts. And looking for, I guess, things that had some historical significances, not just fanciful things, but things that spoke of the history of this nation. Part of history, a lot of people didn't know about. The bottom figure is depicting the depression and the horrible trail of tears when the Cherokee Nation was marched across the country, representing the despair of that journey and all of the losses that they suffered. Above that, then, is a figure with his arm raised with a quill in it, and a turban. He represents Sequoia, one of the elders of the Cherokee Nation, who helped to develop and create a written alphabet, so that the entire nation could learn to read and write in their native language. Then, above that, is a bird, which is the phoenix, which represents new beginnings rising from the ashes to begin again. My method of working now is much freer. I have an idea of color that I take from nature. Then, I come into the studio. I mix paint. I paint the background color and things kind of grow. I may have an idea in my mind where I'm going with it color-wise and design-wise, but that may change as I go along, just depending on what the piece seems to require. I did dabble in a lot of other art forms, and still do, but I always come back to the textiles. It just feels comfortable and right. And it's always a challenge to see all the new things you can do with it. >> CYNTHIA ENGLAND: When I made that quilt, my kids were one-and-a-half, three-and-a-half and six. And so, I worked on it at night, late at night. That's why it's called "Peace and Quiet," because most of it was done at night. The technique that I used to make the quilt is my own. And I developed it when I made that quilt. So, after I made that quilt, everyone wanted to know how I made it. I did a pattern to teach in a class. And it just kind of snowballed, and now I have a pattern company where I'm making patterns made out of that technique. So, now, I'm lecturing and teaching. I was a mom at home at the time I made this quilt, so it really has made a big impact on my life. My father talked me through the first quilt that I made. He remembered how his mother had quilted. He said, "I think she did this," and "I think she did that." So, I'm a self-taught quiltmaker. I've never had any basic-type classes. So, I just keep learning new ways to do things and pitching the old ways. Quilting has an aspect in it that no other craft I've ever done has, in that you can do something very simple, or you can do something very technical. And there's a big in between play there. And you never get bored with quilting, like I have with so many other crafts that I have done. It's just the best thing I've ever done. I'm just real proud of it. [Captioning services provided by Wisconsin Public Television.] www.wpt.org