TREASURED MEMORIES BLUE BAR QUILTS October 2020

                                              Treasured Memories:

New Works by Members of the Memory Cloth Circle

October 1 -November 19 2020

Blue Bar Quilts 

6333 University Ave

Middleton WI

The Memory Cloth Circle began at Lakeside Coffee House during the 2013 MMOCA Triennial. Each week people signed up to tell stories and embroider memories. The group was inspired by Amazwi Abesifazane, Voices of Women, in South Africa. Those courageous women began making Memory Cloths to tell their stories of Apartheid; they asked us to share their process in the U.S. We honor them in our work choosing our own stories and messages.

When the 2013 MMOCA exhibition ended many of the Circle participants, buoyed by the group’s energy and creativity, decided to continue gathering; we meet weekly to this day. Today the Memory Cloth Circle brings together 20+ professional and non-professional women artists from various backgrounds. All enjoy sharing ideas, narratives, and stories in stitches using vintage and repurposed fabrics through embroidery, applique, collage, and mixed media. 

Since the pandemic halted in-person gatherings we have met weekly through Zoom, and we are delighted that this has allowed participation to include members in Oregon, Texas, Florida, Nova Scotia, and Tanzania.

Circle member Lisa Binkley has repurposed wooden cigar boxes in her mixed-media fiber art for years. Her father used to enjoy smoking cigars, and when she saw the beautiful boxes, he began saving them for her. He is delighted that they have been incorporated into her art as well as others’.

Many of us had a special box as a child that we used to hold treasured objects—found feathers and bones, shells and special beach pebbles, poems, old jewelry from a grandmother, and other gems. As our group considered possibilities for our 2020 exhibition at Blue Bar Quilts, we decided to tap into treasured memories and the idea of boxes to contain them. The boxes that are the foundation of works in this exhibition are cigar boxes from Lisa’s dad and a few other sources, wine boxes from his wine cellar, and a world of fabrics, threads, beads, photographs, jewelry, lots of hand stitches, and messages and memories. Enjoy.