Local Award Winning Quilt Has An Important Message for Voters
Contributed Photo. Source.
Artist Statement:
VOTE, girl you earned it! by Marbe Cook
This year is the 100 year anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Many quilt shows had an artist call for quilts commemorating the event. I started this and then …..Covid and shows canceled. My two girls stand for the 1920 suffragette and the 2020 voter. I used the Ruth McDowell technique. Braided jute made the dreadlocks, lace for her tattoo, satin buttons added to the suffragette boots.
Piecing, applique, and machine quilting by Marbe Cook. 46” x 49”
Art Quilting Shines in The Gorge
It’s that time of year again when the quilters of the Columbia River Gorge and from around the Northwest get to share their craftsmanship by participating in the Columbia River Gorge Quilters Guild Annual Quilt Show. And this year's 1st Place Winner of the first-ever Virtual Columbia River Gorge Quilters Guild Quilt Show has an important message to share with all women voters, including those who identify as LGBTQIA+: VOTE, girl you earned it!
Contributed Photo. Pictured: Marbe Cook of Hood River, dressed as RBG for Halloween.
VOTE, girl you earned it! by Marbe Cook, of Hood River, OR won 1st place in the Viewers' Choice Awards in the Art Quilt “Journey” Challenge category. The challenge of the category is to create content that reflects the artist's interpretation or commemoration of the word ‘journey’.
The quilt commemorates 2020 as the 100th anniversary of women’s constitutional right to vote. The art quilt depicts two women, a white suffragette from the past, proudly wearing a nonbinary flag as a sash and boots with satin buttons and a modern 2020 woman of color from our present, with tattoos made from lace, braided jute for dreadlocks, and tie-dye pants with a rainbow heart on them signifying LGBTQIA+ pride. Both voters, old and new, are working together to pin up a red white, and blue flag that says VOTE to a gray patchwork wall. The fold in the flag creates an illusion of billowing movement, and the details down to the hard-to-find satin buttons on the suffragette's boots are all there. The scene is timely, striking, and dynamic.
“My two girls stand for the 1920 suffragette and the 2020 voter,” said Marbe Cook.
Marbe Cook said that her three daughters were the real inspiration for completing the quilt. “I have three daughters. I was really inspired by them to make the quilt,” said Marbe Cook, who says the quilt took nearly 6 months to complete.
“Many of the national quilt shows put out a call to artists for quilts that in some way recognized or commemorated or talked about suffering suffragettes,” said Cook, “So I started this concept in my own mind in January but it wasn’t anywhere near fabric yet and the idea was percolating and then COVID came and all of them were canceled. I had no place for my ladies to go, but I finished it because a friend of mine had said, well don’t forget about the election. And so back in July, I decided okay, I got to finish the thing.”
It is the details of the quilt that bring out its true uniqueness. From the satin buttons to the lacy tattoos and carefully braided hair. “It wasn’t all pre-planned, it kind of came together as I went along. More and more thoughts came into my head about what I could put into the quilt - the word serendipity comes to my mind, I thought I have the skill to put those details in, so that’s going in!”
Contributed Photo. Source.
“It was fun to do. From the technical point of view of a quilter, it is an all-piece quilt. In the quilting world that means we sew the two pieces of fabric together and it’s not applique. And some of the materials that I used like the tie-dye pants on the 2020 voter came from the thrift shop. I had to cut up those pants to fit the pattern I had.
“It just seemed to me that those women need to pay attention and they have a right to vote. This right to vote is a hundred years old and for some of you it’s only since 1964, but you have the right to vote so go do it.”
I asked Marbe Cook what meaning Viewers' Choice had meant to her, “I have placed in quilt shows before but this was the biggest award I have gotten. Viewers' choice means that a lot of wonderful people appreciated the quilt and the message and my craftsmanship and you know that is worth everything to me; that it was recognized and the very fact that they saw all the little details. I think depending on who you are and where you are in life, you don’t see it all (all the details).” said Cook, referring to the smaller details as well as the more obscure messaging like the nonbinary flag as the suffragette's sash.
The nonbinary flag which represents people whose gender exists outside the binary of male or female was first created in 2014 but has become increasingly well known in 2020. Although the word non-binary has been in use since 1863 it wasn’t specifically used to refer to someone's gender identity until the 1990’s and it wasn’t until 2019 that the pronoun “they” was added as a way to refer to a nonbinary individual in the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. The use of the flag as a sash reminds the viewer of the long history of specifically gendered rights in the United States Constitution for those who have lived both in and outside of the gender-binary over the past 100 years.
“I have talked to friends since then and said well this is a great quilt and everybody loves it but if it was hung in the show next year, it wouldn’t make nearly the impact of what it made this year, it’s a time-sensitive world,” said Cook.
But that might not stop her from making another one four years from now “if you’re going to ask then yeah, I might make another one four years from now. I haven’t really thought about it but we'll see,” said Cook.
All those details add up to make this very timely quilt that qualifies as art with a capital ‘A’. While quilting often brings to mind a cozy gift from grandma or a warm gift you can throw over the bed and toss in the washing machine-- this award-winning quilt reminds the viewer that quilting is also a traditional and contemporary art form, that provokes thought and emotion as it hangs on the wall.
“Us art quilters have to kind of re-educate people that we are making quilts that are meant to go on the wall, they’re meant to be looked at,” said Susan Price, aka Smitty of a Columbia River Gorge Quilters Guild’s Beyond the Block Art Quilt Group.
VOTE, girl you earned it! By Marbe Cook is currently on display in the window of The History Museum of Hood River County.
2nd & 3rd Place Viewers Choice Award Winners
Contributed Photo: Source. Viewer’s Choice 2nd Place, Coyote Moon, by Ronda Griffin
Artist Statement: I saw this drawing in a coloring book and thought it would be perfect for collage. It is stitched directly onto canvas and stretched over a frame.
Contributed Photo: Source. Viewer’s Choice 3rd Place, Heritage Mountains, by Kim Boldt
Artist Statement:
This quilt was made for my youngest daughter and her husband, who love the outdoors. The different colors of the mountains represent the three states they’ve lived in: Oregon, Washington and Utah.
Contributed Photo: Source. "Big Leaf" by Daera Dobbs
Contributed Photo: Source. “Maui Echoes” by Ronda Griffin
There are lots of other quilts to check out as well! This year there were 91 entries into the show.
You can view more of the quilts HERE.
The number of entries in each category:
17, 2020 Challenge Quilts (Since the year was 2020, the challenge was to represent ’20’ of something, and the finished size was to be 20x20.)
8, Roots Quilts (Special exhibit by Beyond the Block with everyone's interpretation of Roots.)
8, Journey Quilts (Special exhibit by Beyond the Block with everyone’s interpretation of Journey)
13, Art Quilt, Contemporary (Art quilts that are not considered realistic.)
13, Art Quilt, Realistic (Art quilts that display something realistic.)
1, Large Quilt Mixed Technique (More than one skill, such as embroidery, applique, piecing, etc.)
12, Large Pieced (Circumference larger than 252”)
7, 3-D (Miniature, Table Runner, 3D, or something other than a traditional quilt.)
4, Wall Applique (Circumference smaller than 252”)
14, Wall Mixed Technique (Smaller than 252”)
11, Wall Pieced (Smaller than 252")
Contributed Photo: Source. “Fish on” by Jeanine Moser
About the Show: Going Virtual
This was the first time since the Columbia River Gorge Quilters Guild was founded that the show has been virtual.
“This particular year, we didn’t have a judge come in and quilts were submitted with pictures,” said Susan Price, who goes by Smitty, and was in charge of the quilt list for this year’s show. Having the show virtually lead to some unexpected website traffic nationwide with over 9,000 page views and a little over 1,500 unique site visitors.
Although unlike in previous years, the event did not serve as a fundraiser for Columbia River Gorge Quilter’s Guild. “This year we didn’t have any donations but the flip-side of that is that it didn’t cost us anything either,” said Smitty.
“The good thing that was really cool about the virtual show was that we had people viewing from all over the place that would not have been able to see the quits otherwise. So we are thinking about maybe doing both next year, we’re still in discussion, but it definitely opened the doors.”
“There are millions of quilters across the world that are just as curious and artistically minded and want to see what’s going on. I was thrilled by the number of people from non-local areas that were viewing our quilts. That can’t happen when you have a brick and mortar quilt show,” said Cook.
Columbia River Gorge Quilters Guild: Giving Back to the Community
Part of CRGQG’s mission is to promote and preserve quilt making techniques by providing educational opportunities in quiltmaking for people of all ages backgrounds and skill levels. With quarterly held programs and workshops and a yearly quilt show.
“Really the guild is all about education and so we’re trying to teach people new techniques, to give people tools to use,” said Smitty.
The guild’s mission also includes community building with retreats and sewing days to foster friendships and sharing. But they are probably best known for their philanthropy through charity quilting. Members made and donated 123 quilts to various local charities in 2019 alone.
“It’s all about the comfort quilts that we make for people. I made two that went to victims of the fires. There’s something really cool about making something for somebody that you’ll never meet.” said Smitty.
If you’re interested in becoming a member or learning more about the Columbia River Gorge Quilters Guild click here.
To donate to support Columbia River Gorge Quilters Guild click here.
Contributed Photo: Source. “Gigi” by Nona Scheurer
