Virtually each day since falling in love with quilts almost 30 years ago I have come face to face with the need to document and preserve the" storied" history of American quilts and their makers, In 1981, when I co-founded The Kentucky Quilt Project, the first state quilt documentation project, our goal was to gather the history of 19th century Kentucky quilts before it was lost. To do this we invited people to bring their family quilts to one of our Quilt Days held around the state of Kentucky. At the Quilt Day we interviewed the descendents of the makers. They had such wonderful stories to tell about the quilt, their family and their own personal relationship to both. Their stories helped to give a voice to those long ago quiltmakers. The KQP documented thousands of quilts, produced an exhibition that traveled with the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service, published a book, "Kentucky Quilts 1800-1900", sponsored lectures and three other exhibitions as well as published books on those projects (links here) and a series of acclaimed Quilt Journals- all dedicated to the American quilt and the places they hold in the hearts of the makers and the family.

In 1991-2, The Kentucky Quilt Project sponsored Louisville Celebrates the American Quilt, a group of events designed to highlight and further the extraordinary developments in the field over the past two decades One of the conferences was called the Bibliography Conference where the panel of 15 of the foremost quilt scholars and 100 additional participants suggested the form and direction for a new quilt index, accessible to inclusive of all of the scattered and mostly inaccessible quilt information. Some months later we went to Washington to plead our case to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to help us bring all of this quilt information to the Internet. The Folklife Center became our first partner.

In 1993 there were some exciting developments that led to the founding of The Alliance for American Quilts. Four of us joined together to make our dream a reality….to bring together all of the elements of the quilt world to achieve long lasting goals that will keep quilting alive in the hearts and minds of people long after the current generation of quiltmakers is but a beloved memory. Our dream is now a reality. It is The Alliance for American Quilts, the not for profit organization that to this day takes almost all of my time, energy and money. As a co founder and now board President I consider myself privileged to have a key role in developing this organization. Nothing like this had ever come together around the subject of quilts. The Alliance links the world of quilts, scholarship and the general public. It develops projects and carries them out in partnership with museums, universities and grassroots quilt guilds around the country. It brings together quiltmakers and designers, the quilt industry, scholars and teachers, and quilt collectors in the cause of documenting, preserving and sharing our great quilt heritage. We are committed to collecting the rich stories that historic and contemporary quilts tell us about our nation's diverse people and communities.