Patch Up the Planet

Quilt artist Carol Bridges is donating a full 50% of the purchase price of her wonderful work to the Community Kitchen of Monroe County.

Here she writes about her quilting:

There is a long tradition of quilters making "something out of nothing." We use whatever scraps of cloth we have on hand to create a work of comfort and beauty. It was primarily women who learned to excel in the use of cloth and thread to create whatever was needed by their families.

Though there were master cloth makers of all kinds prior to technology, making things by hand later became something only the poor people did. Then, after machine work showed its dull side (lower quality, poor working conditions, etc.), hand work again rose up as an art form.

Now, in our era of needing to recycle, reuse, and repurpose everything we can in order to be kinder to the Earth, many people are again creating "something out of nothing." As both a collage artist and a quilter, I love finding pieces of paper and cloth and making a beautiful work of art out of it.

I like my work to also go beyond just hanging on my wall, but I have never been completely satisfied with it hanging on the wall of a gallery either. Though I truly appreciate the dedication of gallery owners who do their very best to show and sell artists' creations, the gallery style of seeing so many wondrous objects at once always felt overwhelming to me as a viewer and buyer.

I have come up with an idea which I am going to try out this during 2014. I'm calling it, Patch Up the Planet. It is my way of sharing the wealth and providing a patch of money to organizations that are helping to feed and house people in need. To accomplish this, I will be donating one half of the purchase price of any quilt I sell this year to the Community Kitchen of Monroe County, Bloomington, Indiana.