Evelyn Schroeder ’22

The major factor that drew me to this block, aside from its physical appearance, was how it afforded me the opportunity to develop a new skill. My family was gifted a sewing machine when I was a young child, and I’ve been sewing simple things for years. But I’m new to the realm of quilting. Before sewing this block, I’d never encountered a y-seam. In case you aren’t familiar with the term, a y-seam is formed when edges from three separate pieces of fabric all meet at one point. The resulting seam has the appearance of a Y, hence the name. Learning new skills is something I value, and I like to take advantage of the opportunity to learn how to do new things whenever it is afforded to me. The seam proved a little tricky to get the hang of, and some of the sample blocks I made were an absolute tragedy. In the end, though, I learned to get a consistently acceptable seam and now I have a new skill that I’ll be able to use for the rest of my life. I hope you enjoy the product of my struggles and ultimate success, and that it reminds you sometimes all you need to succeed is a little practice!

Shekinah Villahermosa ’23

I love my culture, and I am incredibly blessed to be born a Filipina. I spent my childhood in the Philippines, and while I was not well-off, my parents never failed to provide for me. For that reason, I was able to obtain those beautiful memories that I will forever hold close to my heart. However, when my family and I moved to another country, hoping for a better life, I was unconsciously and gradually straying away from my culture as I was exposed to new ones through cultural assimilation. As a young child, I felt isolated and different from the other kids, and I was afraid that I would get taunted just because I “looked different” from everyone else. Although I would later learn to love and cherish my own culture, I lost a part of who I was in an attempt to fit into society. Therefore, I have created a quilt block that symbolizes who I am and my native origins. Its design was inspired by various Philippine symbols, traditions, and cultures.

The checkerboard design on the side and the geometric shape on the top and bottom of the quilt block were inspired by the patterns of my traditional clothing called a barong (for men) and a baro’t saya (for women). A barong/baro’t saya is an embroidered long-sleeve formal shirt or gown and the national dress of the Philippines. These formal garments, constructed from a blend of pre-colonial and Spanish colonial-era clothing, is an important marker of Filipino national identity. The flower-like design on the middle of the quilt block represents a Philippine symbol: a sampaguita. This national flower is associated with love, devotion, purity, fidelity, strength, and divine hope, and it is often used in weddings and religious ceremonies. Not only that, but the flower can also be used cosmetically and medicinally.

Zy Garrett ’22

When we were discussing ideas for quilt blocks, we all had to come up with designs that represent who we are. I am a bright and bubbly person, and I love anything that is bright and colorful, so I absolutely knew that I wanted to create a quilt block that expresses my bright and colorful personality. I chose to work with brighter colors because I knew that I wanted something simple, fun to make, and colorful. For my quilt block, I chose two designs and combined them. The first design is called Bright Hope. When I saw the name, I immediately knew that I was going to use this design for my quilt block. It met all the criteria that I was looking for in a quilt block, and the name of the quilt block screamed what I was wanting. I wanted this design to be the focal point of my quilt block. However, I felt that it was lacking a little pizzazz, and I kept searching for another block that would balance out well with the Bright Hope design. I finally came across the Rail Fence design. These two designs flowed beautifully together without either design trying to overshadow the other. When it came down to choosing where the colors should be placed for my quilt block, I couldn’t pick a favorite because I liked all the different iterations of my design. My coworkers and I came up with the solution to have different iterations of my quilt block for all the quilts that we make. I love this idea because every quilt we make will be different, and I think this represents me as well.

Sisaly Krick ’25

This quilt block depicts a flower with heart-shaped petals and relays the message “love is natural.” It is a celebration of identity and pride in oneself. When you look at this quilt block, I hope you feel warmth, love, and acceptance.

Ei Zin Aung ’23

My quilt block design is an expression of my understanding of my cultural and ethnic identity. Like many multi-cultural and “mixed” people, I had to spend quite a lot of time in my childhood and my teenage years questioning and constructing my identity. I did not fit in any box or under any label. Neither group wanted to accept me because they considered me “impure” or “alien.” I have had to learn to make this grey, in-between space of not being here nor there my home. I have translated it onto the quilt block, using contrasting colors, horizontal and vertical strips with a symbol of a star in the middle, which also consists of two colors. I let the colors tell my story.

Blade Hicks ’22

As a kid growing up in the South, I am no stranger to sitting on couches and rocking-chairs with quilts draped over them. However, I’ve never endeavored to make a quilt myself. When the Student Craft Weaving department presented the opportunity to design a quilt block, I sought to find a link between my Southern upbringing and my Korean heritage. That is when I discovered a traditional Korean textile art known as Pojagi. While there are many variations of Pojagi, it is most commonly known as a hand stitching technique that utilizes scrap fabric to make wrapping cloths. I was immediately drawn to these beautifully improvised textile wrappings discovered in my research and finally settled on a pattern that most resembles the design found in my quilt block. This design also resembles the well-known Log Cabin pattern so commonly found in American quilts, bringing my woven journey full circle.

Leeroy Mabvuta ’23

This piece is inspired by Bryan Stevenson’s concept of transitional justice for Black people. While slavery has ended, iterations of this legacy have continued to exist in our world. From Jim Crow to discriminatory curfew laws, racist iterations can currently be seen in the mass incarceration of Black people. Stevenson suggests that we should illuminate this legacy and create educational monuments that tell the truth about slavery to prevent the perpetuation of these iterations. Therefore, I put an abstracted block of jail bars on the bottom left corner of my quilt to represent this sentiment. This block connects to the one above it, which is an abstraction of a drug syringe. Both represent the hypocrisy of the War on Drugs campaign and how it contributed to the mass incarceration of Black people. The War on Drugs program was a government-funded anti-drug law that criminalized drug addiction in response to the growing drug abuse rate. At this time, most of the arrested drug addicts were in disadvantaged and heavily policed areas where Black people primarily lived. As time went on, the opioid epidemic started affecting privileged white teenagers, prompting the government to stop criminalizing drug addiction and instead medicalize it into a challenge that could be dealt with using public health strategies. Unfortunately, all the Black people who were arrested during the War on Drugs program were not compensated, and many are still in the prison system. The bottom right block of my quilt is a purple cross that monumentalizes the Black lives taken away by mass incarceration and other slavery iterations. Coincidentally, the color purple stands for royalty. Ultimately, this block is an active attempt at bearing the truth of the historical legacy of racism that continues to persist in our social institutions (transitional justice).

This block also exemplifies and re-iterates critical race theory, which states that U.S. social institutions like healthcare and criminal justice are laced with racism, as seen in laws and regulations that result in differential outcomes for different races. The top right of my block represents the U.S. flag. However, instead of 12 stars, it has two to represent the ongoing institutional racism between white people and people of color. Instead of containing the red and white stripes, I have removed the white stripe, representing peace, to show the distress caused by institutional racism.

The name behind the quilt denotes the act of repossessing something in exchange for a payment. I chose to use this name as the creation of this quilt as an act of repossessing parts of Black history that have been silenced in exchange for the pain, guilt, or shame that comes with processing this history. Hopefully, the price paid for processing this history will lead to a reconciliation that breaks the invisible walls of institutional racism.

Shaylee Hall ’23

My quilt block has two primroses, which is one of the first flowers that bloom in the springtime. To me, these flowers represent the change and growth that happens during the transition between winter and spring. The taller primrose is dark because it’s going dormant for the winter, while the smaller one is colored brightly for the new season. The primroses and their relation to the seasons also remind me of positive changes I see in myself. For the past couple of years, I struggled with depression due to personal circumstances. I used to take a very long time to get up every morning, and the simplest tasks used to feel so painstaking. I felt dormant like those flowers. Like the gradual transition between the two seasons, my wellness felt gradual. These changes remind me that I can grow, and that I can get past difficult times.

LDora Frank ’23

I don’t know who this little flower person is, but they are ready for an adventure. The viewer may make this flower person whoever they want them to be. Flower Folk can be just a cute flower person you can look at, if you want to. But to me, the Flower Folk shows only one part of their journey, like the pictures you take when you go on road trips or at special celebrations. You don’t stay the same as you were, but you can appreciate what you were in those pictures and see how you’ve grown. Maybe Flower Folk will grow into a bush or a tree. Maybe they are like a tulip and will come back again a little different next year. Flower Folk is what they are. A cute little flower!