Student Showcase: Paper Quilt

Paper Quilt

Gretchen Wagner, Claire Tincher

Interview by Amara Holland

What is the big idea behind the quilt?

G: Claire and I both knew we wanted to do a collaborative project, and both had a surplus of prints that we had collected over a few years of print sessions. To breathe new life into them, we decided to repurpose the prints into a scrap quilt. Similar to that of quilters making use of discarded fabric.

C: We are working together, everyone wants everyone else to succeed, which I sometimes think is unique in the fine arts. This brings me to Gee’s Bend, a historic collaborative group of women [mainly] who used quilting as a way to bring their female community together. It worked across generations, as the older generations taught the younger. Working together with Gretchen on this project was one way for us both to feel more connected both to our pasts and with each other, as makers.

What roles did each of you play in the project?

We started this project in the print shop. As a collaborative and community-based studio we were able to walk away from the project and return during the initial work of laying out the pieces into an exciting and balanced composition. Much of this early collaborative work involved us silently pushing quilt pieces around a large table which then turned into topstitching the project together.

How did you guys decide to make a quilt of all things?

We both have a strong interest in textiles and printmaking which has led us to incorporate handsewing into both our creative practices. Quilting felt like a natural collaboration since historically quilting has been a community-based activity

Does quilting have any specific roots in your family or heritage?

C: My mom is a quilter. She learned through a quilting group with other women. In the beginning of her quilting, she worked with those women on community quilts, learning as she went. Now she makes her own, and she is able to piece and sew the entire quilts herself. My great grandmother from my father’s side decided before she died to piece traditional American quilts for all of the female grandchildren. She was able to sew quite a few of them entirely, but passed before she was fully able to finish the project. I have my pieces stored for when I can take the time to work on them as she would.

G: My grandmother was a quilter; she pieced her quilts herself and then sent them to an Amish community to be quilted and bound. These have become treasured family heirlooms. I picked up quilting during the pandemic and made two queen size quilts using hand-dyed silk.

Could you give us a sneak peek INTO any upcoming projects?

Our first phase of this project was to separate our off-quality prints into piles by color, this was just the pink palette. We have stacks of yellow, green, blue and brown ready to be converted into future quilts. So stay tuned!