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Ruth Marchese

Random Stitches 2026
Cotton, silk, polyester organza, button, beads, watch parts, embroidery thread
15″ x 19″

Sitting in my studio, I looked at my never-ending pile of scraps. Feeling powerless against a more and more violent world, out of kilter and apparently devoid of humanity, I slowly started assembling those scraps, piecing them together, embellishing them with embroidery, beads, and parts of watches (as a reminder of the relentless passing of time). This was very soothing and restorative to my tormented soul.

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The Colors and Promise of Spring
Small grid interfacing paper and multiple patterned fabric
11″ X 12.5″

The pastel coloring of this quilt offers hope and light. The Spring initiates blooming flowers and radiating sunshine. It is meant to be displayed at Easter (a holiday of inspiration) and remain till late Fall. Quilters have always offered hope and inspiration in community, even in dark times.

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Brigette Bellettiere

Nature’s Bounty
Quilted pieced fabric, foam, polyester fiberfill
16″ x 11″

I chose to move out of my comfort zone with this wall hanging quilt. I used classic quilter skills and materials (piecing, applique, fabric, batting, and foam) and deliberately wanted it to be non-rectangular.

I created this piece thinking about the colors I see during my walks in the park. Isn’t it amazing how much beauty there is in the natural world? Even though I am a city person surrounded by man-made structures, it’s nature’s colors that inspire me to create.

I call this mask Nature’s Bounty, as it represents nature and man’s connection to it.

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Nayeli Gilbertson

Spaces & Places
Cotton, machine pieced, hand quilted
14″ x 12″

As a new quilter, smaller quilts are a great way to practice quilt making and hand stitching. Hand stitching can be really tedious, but reminds us how much work went into quilting before machines. It also invites us to slow down and savor the work, the final product becoming an afterthought. No stitch is perfect; there are ripples and inconsistencies, but it is the details that let us look closely.

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Felt Sense.
Vintage curtain/ cotton shirting/ linen/ cotton batting stretched on board
13.5″ x 17.5″

Proportion is important in a world where so much feels too big, overwhelming, and chaotic to contemplate. When I encounter something small, I can hold it, like a toy in my hands, and understand it more profoundly. I am “big” and therefore a little bit more in control. This makes it easier to be present and curious. I love the thrill of making large pieces, but working small can be so rewarding. Small demands precision-details are scrutinized. So it’s odd to note that working small brings a sense of freedom. I feel more liberated to make mistakes, and therefore, breakthroughs often happen. Somehow, the stakes aren’t so high, and I can easily start again.

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Allison Kritz

I Save The Best Scraps For Last
Fabric scraps + ribbon
17.5″ x 13″

I Save The Best Scraps For Last highlights my urge to hunt for tiny treasures to ornament my surroundings with – a tendency that brings me just as much joy in adulthood as it did when I was a kid. Based on a wooden box I used throughout childhood to store special buttons, this quilt honors items that may not have high monetary value (smooth rocks, colorful ribbons, ticket stubs) but make up some of my most treasured tokens: souvenirs from time with loved ones, favorite colors, or things I grab for no reason other than the joy they bring.

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Nan Carey

Cherokee September
Fabric, embroidery thread
13.25″ x 14″

I love learning new words, especially words in languages other than my own. In 2025, I made a quilt calendar, each month a new language to discover, new month and day names, and numbers. In September, the focus was on the Cherokee language.

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Thea McRae

Napkin
My hair (brown and dyed blonde) hand spun into threads
6″ x 6″

When I was younger, my mom would save bits of hair from my haircuts. As I got older, I liked looking through the ziplocs of baby hair and curling them in my fingers. Now I keep a lock of my girlfriend’s hair in my wallet. It’s funny then, that when you find a stray hair on the table or on a plate, it’s the most disgusting thing. Hair holds so much history, so maybe when it’s familiar, it’s less scary.

To make this quilt, I hand-spun my hair into thread and then wove it on a tiny loom of pins to make each square patch.

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Chloë LeStage

Ode
Old socks and underwear
14″x17″

This quilt top is machine-pieced using retired (and cleaned) underwear and socks, and is, of course, inspired by the everlasting genius of Gee’s Bend quilters. I feel affection toward nearly all of the clothes of my past, both because I like seeing how my body can change an object over time, and because I like remembering myself. Lean in, and you’ll see the holes, bleached stains, and overstretched elastic that remind me that I am getting older–something I really like doing. Consider this an ode.

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Kara Reilly

Anatomy of a Cell
Cotton, seed beads
18″ x 16″

When I started playing around with ¼” bias tape, I was appliquéing blobs and outlining them almost absentmindedly. When friends started saying it looked like a cell, I found myself, as if haunted by middle school, returning to the phrase “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell,” a fact held with surprising certainty by so many. At that point, I had to make an accurate one.

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Maddie Pelz

We can hold it all
Linen, beads
15″ x 15″

Collecting the days, weeks, and months of the first year together; a catalog of joy, grief, conflict, and growth. This quilt marks the slow, insistent work of relationships. A visualization of where we’ve been, the foundation for where we’re going, and a reminder to lean in and keep building together.

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Eleanor Kagan

I’m just going to deal with whatever comes up, #18
Cotton, silk, faux fur, wood, metal screws
15.5″ x 10.5″

I started this series of 5×5 daily collages after I’d been laid off. To cast a spell for whatever came next, I pulled fabric randomly from a bag and had to use it in its entirety. This practice resulted in 23 pieces, each determined by the universe and my needle. #18, made as I was recovering from Covid, is my favorite because I love the texture of the green silk. I wanted it to live with other pleasing textures, to be nestled among that which you can’t help but reach out and touch. (You’re welcome to, but be gentle.)

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Sharon Calandra

London ’68 (Wanderlust series)
Cotton fabric, perle cotton and sashiko thread
20″ x 20″

LEAN IN to your childhood imagination! As a child, I dreamt of faraway places. This improvisational quilt is the first in a series of cities and represents how I imagined London in 1968.

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Leona Shapiro

What are you doing for others?
Cotton fabric and thread
13″ x 13″

The title of my piece is a quote attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King. I saw it on a memorial site in Atlanta while visiting Civil Rights sites in Georgia and Alabama. The quote has stayed with me and remains relevant to this day. The words are obscured, inviting the viewer to look deeply into the quilt and perhaps into themselves.

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Lauren Singleton

Toynbee Tile
Fabric, quilt batting
9.25” x 19″

Toynbee Tiles are mysterious tiles found embedded in streets across the United States. The creator and source of the text are unknown. After seeing my first tile on a visit to Washington, DC, I’ve been scouting for others. Whenever I’m out in the world in my own universe, odd images, graffiti, and stickers always pull me out and into the present. I love an item that makes me laugh and ask, “Who made this and why?”

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Margaret Walsh

Chutes and Ladders
Cotton fabric; machine pieced and quilted
11” x 12”

Small pieces of art grant big benefits when you get up close and lean into the work. From a distance, you can miss the small details that add to the overall interest and beauty. A close-up look can give great rewards.

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Ann Lee

Midnight Bloom
Fabric, thread, seed beads
16” x 21”

Flowers are my happy place. This is my way of honoring flowers beyond their fleeting life. I’m drawn to their energy, movement, color, and resilience. The layered petals allow the bloom to feel alive and unfolding. I set it against a dark background to allow the bloom to speak and radiate warmth.

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Micki Segel

R. Delaunay revisted
Cotton solid fabrics, batting, quilting threads.
20″ x 13″

Robert Delaunay was an abstract painter working in the early 20th Century making non-representational art emphasizing color, light, and movement. I am drawn to Delaunay’s work as well as that of his wife, Sonia Delaunay. In this piece, “R. Delaunay Revisted,” I was curious to experiment with recreating one of his iconic works in miniature using fabric as a substitute for paint. The original work was entitled “Rhythm, Joie de Vivre” and was approximately 78″ x 89 “

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Valerie K Turer

Starling and Figs
Cotton, mulberry paper, twig, button
14″ x 14″

My goal was to make a life-size image of beautiful leaves and fruits. It was necessary to crop these elements, as well as the hovering starling, in order to conform to the required dimensions.

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Deborah Berk

In the Garden
Fabric, thread, embroidery thread
8.5″ x11″

After finishing a queen-size quilt I had sewn with lots of measuring, straight lines, and repetition, I needed to do something different. The design of the In the Garden quilt was based on a watercolor I did of a photo I took and altered in AI. Working on it was enjoyably intuitive, and it gave me a chance to loosen up and figure it out as I went along. Sewing organic shapes, which I layered and got to know my sewing machine by trying stitches I’d never used before.

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Kathleen Walsh

Glimmer
Cotton
12.25“ x 9.75 “

Glimmer has several meanings, including a glimmer of light, or in mental health circles, tiny moments that bring you joy or peace. Seeing a bright yellow mitten on a park bench catches our eye, can make us smile, and harken us back to our childhood when we played outside all day and often lost our mittens.

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Stephanie O’Brien

Tables Running
Reused tablecloths, cotton backing, reused thread and binding
13″x13″

Utilitarian tablecloths become a decorative work of art. My work uses reused materials that come to me with their own histories. Pink bat mitzvah tablecloths from an event production company were donated to Brooklyn Creative Reuse instead of being thrown away, and now they are a quilted wall piece. My piece encourages you to look closer at materials to see what else they can become.

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Emma Singer

much too much
Fabric, glass and plastic beads, fringe, plastic bag, ricrac
12.5 x 16”

An explosion of sparklingly flesh and fringe,
Filled to the brim with intricate,
looping beading.
A flash of plastic bag,
And a ribboned ponytail.

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Al Dettmann

In This House I Bloom
Embroidery, denim, Indigo dye & screen print on linen
9.25” x 11.75”

“In This House I Bloom” explores fleeting moments of time, collecting fireflies in the fields of ferns, and growing up queer in a community that lacked representation. Home is not a literal place but a limitless feeling of joy, wonder, and exploration. Colors of the wildflowers recall returning to our inner child, the curiosity of dimples ingrained in our smile lines. We all hold these patch-worked surfaces that remain as a reminder of our beautiful stories.

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Johanna Bjorken

Care
Care labels, upcycled fabric scraps, fleece blanket
11″ x 13″

We get used to overlooking the fine print, absorbed in routine, preoccupied by to-do lists, the chores, the laundry. In 2026, care means community, leaning in to look more carefully at what might be happening before your very eyes. Care is not passive. In 2026, care means protecting neighbors, values, and rights. In 2026, care is a whistle.

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Casey Eisenreich

loose threads
scraps from the scrap table at the Brooklyn Quilt Guild
19.5″ x 14.5″

I have a hard time making quilts that are not functional, so this was a great challenge. With a new baby at home, I found myself solely hand sewing (a first for me) in spare moments, piecing scraps I had gotten from the free table at the Brooklyn Quilt Guild meetings. I made mistakes and chose not to fix them, leaning into rough edges, stray strings, and uneven lines.

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Noelle Salaun

Straight on the Money
Five USD, cotton batting, quilt cotton fabric, polyester thread
6” x 13”

Look a little closer, those are real dollar bills. With the rising cost of living, five dollars doesn’t get you as far as it once did.

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Allison Lew

Gifts
Plastic canvas, acrylic yarn, cotton
10” x 14”

Gifts are a central part of my family’s culture. As I am currently raising my own family, I’ve thought a lot about the gifts, traditions, and values I want to pass along to my son. This quilt is a pondering of what gifts I’ve been given but don’t have use for, and how my son will choose to use the gifts I give him. The materials are sourced from gifts given to me by my ancestors and gifts I’ve given my son.

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EJ Youcha

Cat Scratch Fever
Scraps of fabric (unknown in origin) from a bin, DMC perle cotton, cotton batting
9″ x 9″

This miniature quilt was sewn, using scraps from a bin, every night before I went to bed while assisting a class. Previously, I had mostly sewn and bound my quilts using a machine, but could I replicate my machine work by hand? When I decided to emphasize the hand sewing instead of hiding it, all came together. Hand-sewn and intricately hand-quilted over patterned fabrics, this piece plays with perception and depth. Which stitches are loud and which blend? What colors pop, and which support? Look closer and see more!

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Flora Wilds

wish you were here (and you are)
vintage “wish you were here” galaxy shirt section, fabric from a button down shirt, vintage calendar towel pieces ~ glitched and preserved in found plastic, charm bracelet, iPhone images made in NYC, two 8 in x 10 in wood frames
16″ x 16″

Our place in the universe – abstracted into “merch,” as much “time” as possible, NYC memory archive only accessed via iPhone photos. playing with scale, pace, and states of longing, “wish you were here (and you are)” (2026) is made of all previously worn/used materials.

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El Lang

Moss
silk, canvas, woven material
14″ x 17″

This quilt is based on a photograph that I took, looking down at a patch of moss on a wooded path in Maine. I created the green weaving first and then sewed and cut it in order to piece with the linen and silk scraps – something that I had not tried before. The silk allows sunlight to shine through, a nod to how the light lit up the ground. I am drawn to the way the different materials work together to capture a quiet moment in nature. I cherish these quick snapshots of the mundane.

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Lea Cawthorne

Daydreaming About Kitchen Tiles
Cotton, linen, hemp, raw silk, wool, and alpaca hand-dyed with sumac, comos, dyer’s chamomile, indigo, scabiosa, and goldenrod, pearl cotton, and seashells from my childhood collection.
14.5″ x 14″

I made this small, machine-pieced, wall quilt using only the few hand-dyed scraps of fabric and yarn from natural plant-dye workshops I took in 2021 with Kayla Powers (@kayla.powers) and in 2024 with Cait Nolan (@caitmnolan). In hand-quilting, couching, and embroidering this piece, I celebrate the teachers in my life who shared treasured lessons of slowness and attention that have shaped who I am today. This piece is dedicated to my first teacher, my mom. Who taught me to revere plants & flowers, and collect shells shaped like butterfly wings, and to appreciate small moments of beauty in this life.

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Lili Tobias

Cathedral Windows Sampler
Scrap fabric
9.25″ x 6.125″

While volunteering at the admissions table at the Brooklyn Quilters Guild’s 2025 Quilt Show together, guild member Anne taught me about the really cool “cathedral windows” block. I couldn’t quite understand how it worked, so I decided to lean in and learn how to make it myself! Thank you also to the other guild members, Chris and Margaret, who provided most of the fabric (and, as always, thank you to the free table).

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Margaret Marcy Emerson

Rhythm and Flow
Cotton fabric, glass beads, branch
7″ x 12″

Rhythm and Flow is a meditation stitched in response to the fluid calligraphy of waves, sea, and sand that endlessly gather and dissolve along the Atlantic shoreline.

Machine and hand quilting trace the quiet pulse of those shifting lines, while glass beading catches the light like shell fragments pressed into tidal seams and gathered in wind-drawn ridges along the water’s edge.

This work seeks the calm that arrives when the shoreline turns inward. A gentle cadence. A remembering. Patterns of light and water gather and release, shimmer and soften. Nothing is fixed, yet everything belongs.

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