NORTH READING — The Flint Memorial Library is ringing in the new year with an extraordinary display on the second and third floors by the Boston Modern Quilt Guild.
The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is comprised of a group of people who are passionate about quilting, patchwork, and sewing hailing from all over the Greater Boston area, MetroWest, and beyond. The library will be displaying their collection, “The Denim Project” through the end of February.
The guild’s statement on the project is as follows: “Did you know that 80% of all textiles end up in landfills? Denim alone accounts for more than 200 million tons of waste a year. In an effort to highlight this issue and to promote sustainability within the art of quilting, our guild was challenged to make quilts using only upcycled materials. The quilt needed to highlight denim in particular. Artists could choose any size or subject matter, but no new materials were to be used. This project was very rewarding and the quilts produced are beautiful works of art.”
The Denim Project was first imagined by a previous president of the guild, Sheryl Marshall, in early 2023. The idea was to create something that both brings awareness to discarded textiles which occupy landfills and promotes sustainability through creativity. The only restriction for participants was in regards to materials: quilters were tasked to have at least 50% of their quilts made of upcycled denim, and they were only allowed to thrift or otherwise upcycle their fabrics and threads from what they already had on hand. This challenge opened up new ways of planning and creating quilts, making use of different source materials, thus giving new life to what was once old, worn, and discarded.
Each quilt is so unique from the next, telling a transformative story, from size, to color palette, to design. One quilt, titled “Stardust” by artist Susan McKinney features fabrics that are over a hundred years old. In another titled “Who’s got the button?” artist Jean Penta incorporated dozens of buttons into the design, some of which are antique buttons. The entire guild created a “Quilt Pot Pie” to which each member contributed as well. Be sure to read the artists’ statements posted on the second floor that go with each quilt!
To view more work by the Boston Modern Quilt Guild visit their website, www.bostonmqg.org or go to their Facebook or Instagram pages.