McClellanville Quilts and their Stories

A Virtual Tour

How something is made is as important as who made it. Handmade goods such as jams, cakes, clothes, and quilts are both utilitarian in their functions and deeply personal in their substance. For generations, women have gathered to mend, sew, and share stories in their communities, and these shared moments become as much a part of the finished product as the thread and cloth they used.

For the McClellanville Art Council’s Spring 2020 show, we curated a selection of quilts made by members of the community. Some of these members still reside here and can share their stories, while others have moved away or passed on. Their stories are still being told by those who love them and want to preserve those memories.

We realized that we could not have a quilt show without sharing the stories of the people who made them, the reasons behind the quilts creation, and the way the quilts were put together with thread and conversation.

Despite days of hard work collecting the materials for this show and preparing the gallery for opening night, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic had different ideas about this collection. Our concerns over the community’s health and safety were weighed against our desire to put these important stories and pieces of art into the public, and we made the difficult decision to close the show much earlier than anticipated.

However, we believe that these stories need to be told and these quilts need to be seen. MAC member Olga Caballero painstakingly documented the exhibit through photography. Explore the virtual tour of “McClellanville Quilts and Their Stories” below, and order a calendar of selected photographs from the show here.