Applique Quilt 1935 - 1942

Mildred E. Bent made this quilt, and who knows how long she worked on it, each stitch a little meditation, an act of love! Look at these leafy green shapes held within each square, and how they reach out to each other. I can only imagine Mildred piecing and stitching with incredible care. How does the texture and surface of the quilt communicate? Each careful stitch is a line, a drawing, a mark. I think about the history of quilting, and how so many women, often anonymous, have labored over these objects. They're soft sculptures, aren’t they? Maps of feeling made from scraps of material. Like how a painter mixes color on a canvas, Mildred arranged and rearranged fabric until something new emerged. Each generation picks up the needle, in an ongoing conversation. An artwork like this is a reminder that the most radical thing an artist can do is make something with their own hands.