By Alexandra Molnar, Contributing Writer
Southborough – Mary Walter always finds time to stitch, patch and design. She started to quilt when she was in high school – when the 1976 Bicentennial movement launched enthusiasm for quilting – and has been pursuing her passion ever since, through art school, her career and raising a family.
Always interested in art, Walter attended the School of the Worcester Art Museum, which later merged with Clark University, where she received classical art training. While becoming educated in various art forms, Walter, a native of Northborough who currently resides in Southborough, always continued to quilt.
“I consider the fact that I was an artist and a quilter a part of who I was, and I haven’t stopped that no matter what I’ve done in my life,” Walter said.
Quilting has been a steady thread throughout Walter’s life; she has taught quilting, served as the curator and shop manager at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell for seven years, served as a magazine editor for “Quilting Arts Magazine,” and is currently a juror for the National Quilt Association (NQA). As a juried member at the Brush Gallery at the Lowell National Historical Park, Walter has a gallery wall display of small fiber items and constantly has her work on exhibit worldwide.
“One thing that’s really important to me is that people have exposure to quilts and quilting,” Walter said.
As a former member of the New England Fiber Collective, Walter was able to show her work with a group of artists, which was beneficial because she said it can be difficult to fill a gallery with just one piece of work.
“Putting a piece into a quilt show is a way to show your work; exhibiting with a smaller group is a way for people to see a body of your work in a gallery,” Walter said.
However, Walter took a break from the collective to focus on earning a master’s degree in public administration. She now works for the town of Southborough as a business administrator.
She cited discipline and commitment as essential to completing her artwork as well as on her journey to become a judge for the NQA, which took her three years to attain. The application process is rigorous and includes a multitude of paperwork and panel review.
In order to be a judge, Walter explained that one must have a broad skillset including an understanding of the art, traditional and contemporary, as well as people skills because it involves interacting with the public.
Walter’s motivation to become an NQA judge is simple.
“[I] wanted to go places and see quilts,” she said.
Traveling has exposed Walter to the many regional differences that exist within the quilting sphere. For example, quilters in New England tend to prefer hand quilting, and there is a lot of quilting in general. The color palette changes depending on the region and quilters’ backgrounds, as many quilters are influenced by the colors and geography of the landscape as well as customs and politics.
“[It is] nice to land in the middle of all these thousands and thousands of hours’ worth of work, touch them, give prizes, give money, visit with people, get a little piece of the local culture, and go home,” Walter said.
Walter’s interest in history and working with a variety of designs, techniques and fabrics will come together in an upcoming Presidential Quilt Project for which she is currently creating a piece. Quilt historians and enthusiasts who are affiliated with the American Quilt Study Group will contribute quilts representing a president of their choice, and the works will travel to presidential libraries and other venues around the United States. The quilts representing the 43 presidents must be historically accurate; quilters must use period or reproduction fabric as well as historically accurate patterns.
Walter is contributing a quilt to represent President Obama. After conducting research, Walter has chosen fabrics and quilting techniques that reflect contemporary society as well as Obama’s life.
The presidential quilt, which will be on display from Sept. 2015 to Dec. 2017, is just one of many projects that Walter is currently pursuing. Despite time constraints, she said that she is “constantly contributing to the quilting world.”
Walter currently rents studio space in a mixed-use building where she teaches at her weekly quilt group and completes her projects in a space large enough to store all of her equipment and work on multiple projects simultaneously.
Walter has developed her own recognizable style, but she is always open to new influences. Many of Walter’s works are inspired by nature and contain bright colors. Though she has her preferences, Walter finds enjoyment in viewing other quilters’ work and described their works of art as a source of continual inspiration.
“There’s something for me about the pure pleasure of creating something out of fabric because I love fabric. And then there’s something just as excellent about expressing yourself: designing for yourself something that shows your imagination,” Walter said.
