We are Quilting Naked! No, it is not like casual Friday gone to far and too early. It is more about quilts that stripped us back to our essentials. Quilts that changed us as quilters and as people.
Today I am thrilled to invite Jacquie Gering to share her story.
Bang, You’re Dead By Jacquie Gering Photo Credit – Gregory Case Photography
You know it’s funny how a quilt can change your life and at the same time make you a better person. Bang, You’re Dead did that for me. I rediscovered a passion for children and anti-violence causes. I found the confidence to put out a piece that I knew many folks wouldn’t like. It made me stronger and able to take the creative risks I wanted to be able to take. I knew that quilts could speak, but that quilt helped me find my voice and have the guts to use it.
Photo Credit – Gregory Case Photography
Bang is about my husband’s work with the Chicago Public Schools and the children who are, on a daily basis, affected by the violence in the city. It is my call for action and for not ignoring the problems of children and families even though we may live in safe places where we are not affected. It is important to have conversations about guns, about poverty, about mental health and about violence in our society in order to create solutions that will change the lives of children and their families.
Photo Credit – Gregory Case Photography
I chose the gun as the focal point of the quilt because I knew it would be controversial. I wanted folks to look, to ask questions, to talk about this quilt. I wanted it to be hard to ignore and I hoped if folks looked closer and read the story, the reason behind the quilt they might be moved to action as I was.
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Thank you Jacquie for sharing your powerful quilt with us. I know that I was riveted the first time I saw it and hope others get to see it for themselves as well.
If there are others of you that would like to Quilt Naked here at BAQS then submit your brief story, and 2-5 photos of your project to maddie@badassquilterssociety.com. We are looking for all sorts of stories. If the quilt you made changed you let us know about it!
Jacquie ROCKS! I love that she put herself out there with this quilt.
The ” * You Cancer” Quilt was my favorite recent “Bad ass” quilt…seen at last year’s International Quilt Festival. though there is a much older quilt that I always go back to when thinking about quilts that make a real statement…
In 1932,Texas quilter Fannie Shaw threw President Hoover’s Statement right back at him with her incredible “Prosperity Is Just Around The Corner” quilt… cartooning in applique blocks with every imaginable type of American shown peeking around the corner of each attic window… From the bum and the cowboy, to the preacher and the farmer, each is shown looking hard for Hoover’s promised prosperity! Rarely shown, this museum piece occasionally is shown. I’ve seen it twice, once in Houston, and once in Dallas…it still inspires me. It can be seen on the cover of the book “Twentieth Century quilts 1900-1950 by Woodard Greenstein, published by EP Dutton in 1988. And interview with 90 year old Ms. Shaw appears in the book! BadAss quilters have been around for a long, long time!
I’ve had a quilt in my head for awhile… inspired by the controversialF**k quilt at QuiltCon… your post reminded me that it’s something I really NEED to do…. thanks!