East Cobb Quilt Show September 16 -18

The bi-annual East Cobb Quilt Show will be held September 16-18, 2005 at the Cobb County Civic Center in Marietta, Georgia. This year’s theme is "Georgia Celebrates Quilts." The show is a juried and judged show and will exhibit over 300 quilts.

Quilts will be judged in several categories, and the following prize money will be awarded: Best of Show $150.00; Best Hand Quilted $200.00; Best Machine Quilted $200; First in Miniature $75; and First in Category $150.00. Ribbons will be awarded for Judges’ and Sponsors’ Choices, Viewers’ Choice, Quilters’ Choice, Miniature Quilts and Second and Third in Category.

Atlanta Album (This Ain’t Baltimore) shown below will be one of the quilts on display. Stop by and see it in person.

Atlanta Album (This Ain't Baltimore!) 75 x 96 inches, 2004. My version of a Baltimore album!

Georgia Quilt Documentation Project

The Georgia Quilt Documentation project is almost complete. The book that flows from this important work of documenting Georgia quilts will be published in 2006.

I am proud and excited that one of my quilts will be included in this important work. Atlanta Album (This Ain’t Baltimore!) will be featured as an example of modern African American quilting. The quilt is an appliqué quilt depicting flowers in vases using African fabrics. The title is a tongue-in-cheek jab at the fact that, although I love admiring Baltimore album quilts, I knew I would never make one. Atlanta Album (This Ain’t Baltimore!) is my adaptation.

Hopefully, 100 years from now Atlanta Album (This Ain’t Baltimore!) will still inspire the joy in others that it inspired in me as I made it.

O.V.'s Private Moments, 1999. The beginning of my recorded quilt history. 

Make History: Document Your Quilt

None of Clara Ford’s quilts have labels. I wish they did. I would love to know the exact date my grandmother took that last stitch. I would love to see her name written in her own hand.

Your quilt is not finished until you put a label on it. At a minimum, your label should include your name, the place the quilt was made and the date it was finished. Historians will be delighted to read any other personal information you wish to include such as the occasion or something about the recipient of the quilt. I also sign and date the front of my quilts because an artist’s signature adds value to a work of art.

Make life easy for future historians. Document your quilt. Your label can be a simple handwritten message on muslin. Some quilters add pictures and embroidery. HP sells computer software specifically designed to help you create spectacular labels. The sky is the limit.

So do your part to accurately record history. Put a label on your quilt.