Blue Flax Quilters / Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Freedom Quilters: Beth Pinckney, Amber Benton, Carla Stout, Kristin Walker, Andrea Cunningham
Blue Flax Quilters is a group of women with intertwining friendships. Some of us have known each other for years; some just met in Beth’s sewing room last summer, when we worked on our first quilt together for Sari Bari. We are Christian women, artists who create in fabric, fiber, flowers, and food; clay, paper, silver, and song. Among us are teachers of physics, sewing, and art.
Carla is a mother, handcrafter, and nature lover; Kristin, a scientist, physics professor, musician and friend; Andrea, a mom of boys, artist, teacher, and lover of the outdoors and the garden; Amber, another mom of many boys (6) and avid reader who slept under her grandmother’s flour sack quilts as a child; and Beth, a mother of six, Gramma of almost two, and quilter and gardener whose home is always open.
This year’s fabrics have been a challenge for us. Working with darker colors and larger scale patterns, we struggled at first. But difficulty draws forth creativity and beauty has emerged as we’ve cut and pieced. Like last year, our hope is that the cooperative work of our hands will bless the women of Sari Bari, whose lives are full of challenges that call forth creativity and beauty.