About

Regina Abernathy

I have been sewing since the age of twelve. I remember spending countless days in the fabric store when I was a child with my mother. My mother and grandmother introduced me to the love of fabric, color, and sewing. My mother was an excellent seamstress and tailor. She made all of the clothes for her eight children. My grandmother was also a seamstress. She was employed at the Ohio Knitting Mill and Bobby Brooks Inc. where she sewed sweaters. Therefore, we always had sweaters to wear.

Fabric, color, and quilting collided when I began meeting with Mrs. Eloise Canzater, a master hand quilter for lessons. She introduced me to crazy quilts, African Fabric, using newspaper to measure and create designs and squares, and most importantly, she introduced me to the understanding that if you love your quilt, that is all that matters. Later, I was blessed to meet the women of the African American Quilt and Doll Guild. They introduced me to machine quilting, story quilts, fiber arts, doll making, and much more.

My quilts have been exhibited in The Stephanie Tubbs Jones Art Gallery, Framed Gallery, Loganberry Books Art Gallery, Dayton Society of Artist Gallery, Case Western Reserves Art Studio Gallery, Shaker Heights Library Art Gallery, Ursuline College Wasmer Gallery, The Artist Archives of the Western Reserve and Sculpture Center, The Cleveland Urban Film Festival, Nelson Mandela’s Home Museum (Johannesburg, South Africa), The Emperor’s Palace Convention Center (Johannesburg, South Africa)

My work has been featured in Shaker Magazine, Cleveland.com, Inspirations Visions and Traditions in Fiber Arts, Conscience of the Human Spirit: The Life of Nelson Mandela, and seen and Unseen, The Kerry and Betty C. Davis Collection and the Northeast Ohio Response.

Alfreda D. Barnes

Priscilla Bradley

I am a collector of antique dolls, a doll maker, quilter, and storyteller. I also love shopping at second hand stores and resell shops. Using fabric, color, and found objects, I am able to express myself. I love to tell stories. I am a member of the Cleveland Association of Black Story Tellers. Thus, these fabrics and objects allow me to tell stories about the things that are important to me as a quilter, doll maker, and storyteller.

My quilts have been published in the following books: "Inspirations, Visions, and Traditions in Fiber Arts" and "Fiber Arts Enfords: KWANZAA. Quilts and Zawadi Dolls" My quilts and dolls have been exhibited in a variety of quilt shows including "The Live Ideas Festival-New York Live Arts: Celebrating the Year of James Baldwin."

Norene Brown

Doressa Carlton

Laura M. Croom

Norma J. Dixon

Norma J. Dixon is married with two children, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Retired 20 years ago. During her free time, she is quilting on her long arm quilting machine, or making quilt tops and play solitaire on her laptop.

Jacqueline Dukes

I am a teacher and a collector of materials. As a child, I was delighted and awed as I watched my grandmother magically create garments for herself and my younger aunts. I have been sewing since I was twelve because my great grandmother gifted me with a sewing machine and lessons. Since that introduction, I have earned a degree in apparel design, clothed my family, and experimented in various ways fabric can be manipulated. I have traveled within 6 of the 7 continents, and I am always in search of the fabrics associated with the locations. My questions are always, “Who weaves the cloth?” and “What is the significance of the fibers, techniques, colors, and motifs incorporated within it?” I am a knitter, needlepointer, smocker, and crocheter as well as a quilter.

Initially I was not a person who wanted to deconstruct and reconstruct small pieces of fabric. My attitude changed when I lived in Japan from 2000-2003. A quilt teacher, who lived in the community, had learned to quilt on a three year stay in Ohio. I was invited to become part of her class. At first I tried to avoid it, but I finally visited, just to be polite. There I discovered that like the old quilting bees, community gossip was part of the privilege, so I participated with the group the rest of my stay. While there I produced some pieces that appeared in a couple of shows in local communities.

I really began quilting with a purpose when I started thinking of the medium as a way to share stories. The African American Quilt and Doll Guild and Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi’s Women of Color Quilt Network has introduced me to a cohort of people who share my enthusiasm and commitment to enlightening others through cloth. I have tired of negotiating for our challenges and accomplishments to be recognized. If you want the truth to be told, you have to do it yourself. There are events too numerous to count, and I have yards to go before my last stitch. I long for a day when there is no need to document so many trials and tribulations. Quilting has not only provided an incredible way to use up the huge collection of fabric I’ve gathered, it also has allowed me to share my voice, our journey, and our beauty with people I may never meet. I have become a storyteller.

Barbara Eady

Gloria Kellon

I am a retired teacher who loves to know the story about the times of African American lives. Storytelling intrigued me, so I joined the National Association of Black Storytellers and met amazing storytellers and heard stories that had to be told with the needle and thread. African American history is usually my focus as I create narrative quilts and Black cloth dolls. As a member of the Women of Color Quilters Network, I seek to teach African American History and to use quilts as a voice for needed issues.

I live in Shaker Heights, Ohio and helped organize the African American Quilt and Doll Guild whose mission is involved with the community and possibilities of the art of quilting.

Vivian Miller

Sandra E. Noble

As a fiber artist, I always had an interest in creating art works using a variety of fibers with different textures and colors. During the early 60's, I designed and made abstract wall hangings but after becoming a wife and mother, I went on a hiatus that lasted for many years.

After retirement from teaching visual arts, I enrolled in a quilting class at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The instruction followed a traditional quilting method, but I was encouraged to experiment beyond the parameters of the method. That quilting experience gave me motivation to return to designing and making fiber wall hangings. I now cut, fuse, and sew together a variety of fabrics with a multitude of rich colors and textures to make quilted wall hangings

I find inspiration in multiple venues such as exploring the life of a special person, or a beautiful but dying tree with a regal appearance or my African American heritage. I also, peruse Pinterest for contemporary paintings and quilts, looking at quilt books and visiting quilt shows to explore new directions for my own wall hangings.

I have been fortunate to have affirmation of my work. My quilts have been in several quilt exhibitions nationally and one internationally. I have quilts published in quilt magazines and books in addition to receiving awards.

Mary D. Pinckney

Bernice Sanders

Geneva B. Sarratt

My mother taught me how to sew at the early age of eleven years old. I was the oldest of seven children and I had to learn to help my mom male dresses for my sisters. We always had an extended family, and we all worked as a group when it came time to sew. My mom worked for Schoolbelles Uniform Co. Thus we always had white blouses and plaid fabric.

My grandfather was a quilter and he taught my mom how to quilt and how to cook. I began quilting because I had a friend quilt my grandmothers quilt top, and I realized I could do a better job. I also took quilting classes with Ms. Lilly Williams who showed me how to bind a quilt in only one class

I have displayed my quilts at the 2018 AAQDG Quilt Show, The Lake Metro Farm Park (on several occasions), Mayfield Village Quilt Show and The Ursuline College Wasmer Gallery.

As an instructor, I have taught two classes on vest making and one class on making the burrito wrap pillowcases. I enjoy interacting with creative and fun people, which the AAQDG has plenty of.

I belong to three quilting groups. Baby Sew which is affiliated with Pins and Needles in Mayfield Heights (since 2008), The Hilltop Quilters (2009) and AAQDG (2010). These groups keep me motivated and help me to continue moving forward.

I would like to thank my family and everyone else for their support over the years.

Felecia Tinker