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Barbara Cameron
@threegirlpileup
Quilting by its nature is a process of taking disparate pieces and putting them together into a meaningful whole. I use materials with a history—like reclaimed fabrics and literal trash—to capture memories and moments in time. “I Made Tea,” is a series that documents the near-daily caregiving task of making tea for my mother at the end of her life. (No. 2) was a response to the huge number of sweetener packets that littered my kitchen and my mom’s bedroom. I collected them and wrangled them into a very quilt-like textile based on traditional quilt blocks. (No. 3) contains the remains tea bags that were part of our tea rituals—round (high test English Breakfast) for my mom, square (decaf Earl Grey) for me. The text is a letter of all the things I wanted to say to my mom but never could, cut up and (of course) sewn into a quilt. These piece is not big enough to wrap around a person, and their materials are not textiles, but the traditional layers and construction techniques still evoke the generations of women who cared for each other and created textiles of love and thrift and remembrance.
I Made Tea (No. 3); Cotton fabrics, discarded tea bags, cotton and cotton/poly threads, cotton batting; 21" h x 22" w; 2024
Barbara Cameron is a quilter, a mother, a daughter, a teacher, and a science nerd based in Durham, North Carolina. Her mom taught her to sew as soon as she was old enough to hold a needle, and she has been dabbling in fabric arts for all of her life. During the pandemic, she found her way to quilting and has never looked back. An improvisational quilter, she works primarily in found, recycled, and reclaimed fabric as well as non-traditional materials that would otherwise be discarded.
Barbara Cameron
@threegirlpileup
Quilting by its nature is a process of taking disparate pieces and putting them together into a meaningful whole. I use materials with a history—like reclaimed fabrics and literal trash—to capture memories and moments in time. “I Made Tea,” is a series that documents the near-daily caregiving task of making tea for my mother at the end of her life. (No. 2) was a response to the huge number of sweetener packets that littered my kitchen and my mom’s bedroom. I collected them and wrangled them into a very quilt-like textile based on traditional quilt blocks. (No. 3) contains the remains tea bags that were part of our tea rituals—round (high test English Breakfast) for my mom, square (decaf Earl Grey) for me. The text is a letter of all the things I wanted to say to my mom but never could, cut up and (of course) sewn into a quilt. These piece is not big enough to wrap around a person, and their materials are not textiles, but the traditional layers and construction techniques still evoke the generations of women who cared for each other and created textiles of love and thrift and remembrance.
I Made Tea (No. 3); Cotton fabrics, discarded tea bags, cotton and cotton/poly threads, cotton batting; 21" h x 22" w; 2024
Barbara Cameron is a quilter, a mother, a daughter, a teacher, and a science nerd based in Durham, North Carolina. Her mom taught her to sew as soon as she was old enough to hold a needle, and she has been dabbling in fabric arts for all of her life. During the pandemic, she found her way to quilting and has never looked back. An improvisational quilter, she works primarily in found, recycled, and reclaimed fabric as well as non-traditional materials that would otherwise be discarded.