Lifelong fiber artist Logan O’Bier had to learn the rules before she could break them.

Her self-taught mastery of traditional quilting techniques led to historical reproduction and antique restoration. Eventually, this empowered her to create modern, visually indulgent pieces that provoke thought and amusement, while honoring her heritage.

“My mom always said she couldn’t leave a pair of scissors out because I would cut everything up!” O’Bier recalled. However, she was encouraged to pursue the art form, and followed a beginner’s book to create a basic square quilt at age 7.

“I worked up to doing stars with half-square triangles and crazy quilts—an actual technique using scraps and building outward,” O’Bier said.

She became “obsessed” with Civil War-era and late-1800s fabrics, replicating historical patterns.

“When I started quilting, it was not hip or cool for young people,” O’Bier said. Friends teased her. “Why are you doing something your grandmother does?”

However, modern quilts eventually became fashionable. They are characterized by bold colors and prints, high-contrast, graphic compositions and improvisational piecing, like her mid-century-inspired quilt she calls Terranaka Code, or “Earth Friend.”

One of her crazy quilts, entered into a past State Fair of Virginia Quilt Show, garnered praise from the judges. With astronomically influenced stars representing constellations and dappled with twisting black holes, its print glows in the dark.

O’Bier comes from generations of watermen and farmers in the Northern Neck, which inspired other designs, like her crab pot buoy quilt, personalized with her dad’s buoy number. And a sunflower quilt block was created in memory of her great-uncle Billy Dawson.

“Everybody loved his sunflowers, which he planted specifically so people could see them from the road,” she said. “I sat there and made sure every stinkin’ little seam was perfect.”

The results are stunning, but it’s the process she finds rewarding. A quilt is a “problem” until O’Bier finds a solution.

“That’s why I like restoration work, because it’s a definite problem,” she said. “A quilt can be mangled, or just a little piece needs to be replaced. I’m a sucker for something that needs to be saved.”

Quilts central to museum’s captivating exhibits

Hundreds of quilts lovingly handcrafted from 1806 to 2022 are on display in the heart of downtown Harrisonburg at the Virginia Quilt Museum. Three floors of exhibit space feature a variety of quilt styles, techniques, themes and artistry from both permanent collections and rotating exhibitions.

Intricately pieced fabric “portraits” of 182 species will be displayed through July 15 in the Inspired by Endangered Species exhibit. Each panel reveals layers, textures and stitching imitating hair, feathers, skin, water and sky.
“It helps people see quilts as art—things our ancestors could only dream about,” said Alicia Thomas, the museum’s executive director.

Antique pieces weave a socioeconomic story. Giant quilts made in the 1800s from luxury fabrics like silk indicate the quilter had plenty of money and free time.

“Others were just trying to keep their family warm,” Thomas said. “And with more modern quilts perhaps made by a group, you can see how the they worked together, and imagine those bonds they had.”

Quilting is women’s history, Thomas added.

“Of course there are men who quilt, but it is traditionally a woman’s story, and I think we are just now recognizing the artistry of quilting.”