It took Michelangelo four years to complete the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a relatable ETA for Isabel Downs when it came to finishing her first quilt.
“I dragged the incomplete quilt around with me all over the place, first to San Diego where I was a graduate student. … Then to Panama for two years, where my husband and I lived and worked,” said Downs, who finished the five-year project after moving to Santa Barbara during the 1970s.
“I still have and love the quilt, but it is in a fragile condition,” added the fiber artist, who has an array of more recently created, less fragile quilts featured in one of the Wildling Museum’s current group shows, TREES, which showcases work by a total of nine local quilters.
Each quilter featured in the show is a longtime member of the Sewjourners, a satellite group of the Coastal Quilters Guild of Santa Barbara and Goleta. As the Solvang exhibit’s title suggests, participating artists were asked to quilt their creations with a shared theme in mind: trees.
“We wondered how many different ways we could represent the theme of trees. Having a theme unifies our work while still allowing each member’s personal style to shine through,” featured quilter Ranell Hansen said. “Our styles mesh so comfortably and yet our individuality remains.”
Hansen described the Sewjourners—whose collective quilts can be viewed on the Wildling Museum’s website through Jan. 16—as a close-knit group of creative women. Members can openly share their quilts with one another, whether the quilts are complete or still in progress, and open up about their daily lives as well, Hansen said.
“There is a great amount of trust between us. We are able to share our feelings, our successes and failures, and our love of textiles and the art of quilting,” she said. “We are bound together by needle and thread.”
For one of her tree-themed quilts in the show, Hansen set out to illustrate a wide view of a forest within a single panel, with some flourishes outside the panel as well.
“I wanted the panel to be the focal point but wanted to add some abstract geometric elements that would create a more modern feel,” Hansen said. “I chose triangles in blues to represent water and green squares to represent trees.”
Fellow Sewjourners member Mary Maxwell also enjoyed experimenting with shapes and colors within her featured quilts in the exhibition.
“I have fun with color and shape and the way the fabrics play with each other,” Maxwell said. “My inspiration for my quilts is generally based on a graphic representation of the subject—not necessarily realistic.”
The quilts of Maxwell, Hansen, and Downs are showcased alongside those of six of their peers: Patti Hunter, Linda Estrada, Carol Fay, Pamela Holst, Susan Bullington Katz, and Patty Six.
Hunter, one of the founding members of the Sewjourners, first learned how to quilt through workshops offered by the Coastal Quilters Guild. The origin of Sewjourners as a separate satellite group came about during a regular guild meeting during the early 2000s, Hunter said.
“Some members have left the group, and new members have joined. But the nine Sewjourners whose work is displayed at the Wildling have been together for several years,” Hunter said. “We aim to be supportive of each other, as we each explore the art that we make with fibers.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood could use a cozy quilt during these chilly times. Send comments to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 13-20, 2022.