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Lectures

By focusing on the specific documented quilts, their makers, and their personal experiences, my professionally photographed slide lecture becomes an opportunity for shared intimacy with our grandmothers. I enrich the viewer's experience through the use of family photographs, written words, and personal experiences. Many of these are not unlike the ones expressed by mothers and daughters of today.

The lectures are particularly valuable for students of history and families in addition to quiltmakers. They are as popular with men as with women. Each lecture is planned with its geographic location in mind so it will be particularly satisfying to the audience. Thus, they make ideal programs to serve as educational community outreach.

The programs last about one hour, allowing time for questions and answers. Books I personally inscribed are available for purchase.

Fees are negotiable but must include costs of transportation, lodging, and additional education materials if necessary. Late fees are assessed.

Contracts are required.

Go to Transactions for more information.
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Lecture Set-up

Needed equipment:

Room with capacity for darkening
Podium
Slide projector and large screen,
Long tables
A pitcher of water.

Please contact me directly for more information.

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Titles and Subjects

Treasures from the Trunk™: Quilts of Migration
Placing each quilt in the context of time and place of when and where it was made and where it ended up after the migration provide key leads on the life of the maker or her family prior, during, or after migration experience.

Quilts: Heirlooms from the Homefront
Drawing on the quilts and their stories from my successful 2002 exhibition, this demonstrates the continuing support of quiltmakers during times of conflict in American history from the Civil War to the year 2000.

The Anti-Polygamy Quilt
This valuable presentation quilt, a visual record of 19^th century community and church development, offers a view into the controversial practice of polygamy in the Intermountain West. Depending on the audience’s interest, the talk varies from a comparison with Mormon women’s presentation quilts; the expansion of Methodism across America; to an appreciation of a rare quilt made for an outstanding US senator.

Oregon Heritage Quilts
Drawing on my twenty plus years research of quilts, this focuses on my choices of significant quilts and quilters that reflect the legacy of quiltmaking in Oregon in the last 160 years.

Patterns and Promoters: Three Early Quilt Entrepreneurs of the Colonial Revival 1890-1930
This lecture focuses on the background of the first quilt revival in the United States and describes the work of Marie Webster, Ruby Short McKim, and Carlie Sexton.

Grandmother’s Garden: Reflections on a 1930 Oregon Quilt Contest
Evolving from an Oregon quilt documentation project, this gives background on the Nancy Page newspaper quilt column and the lives of Oregon women who entered their quilts in the contest.

Historic Quilts As Metaphors in Art And Literature
Drawing on my research into the quilts of Grant Wood's paintings and my fascination with literature, this lecture provides background and booklists to demonstrate the use of quilt as metaphor.

The Solar System Quilt
This lecture features my research into one of the Smithsonian Institution Collection's outstanding wool quilts. Using my contacts and interests, the lecture provides the historic context in which the quilt was made in the early 1870s.

Woolen Quilts
Using my interest in making woolen quilts as background, I provide information on unique historic and contemporary wool quilts and why they are my fabric of choice.

The Ties That Bind: Quilts Made in Community
This lecture, developed for the Oregon Council for the Humanities Chautauqua program, is designed to create an opportunity for people to gather for information and interaction. It is also available for the general public.

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Lectures