Why is Olive Barrett, the co-props supervisor for The Blood Quilt, tasked with overseeing the at least 37 quilts used in the production? It has to do with their own experience in the field itself and related endeavors. “I’ve been sewing since I was five or six.,” they told me the other day in a dressing-room conversation. “My mom made all her own clothes in college and was a really big stitcher, so as a child I made doll clothes and stuffed animal clothes. I kept at it but eventually stopped sewing for a while.”
Soon after enrolling in the theater department at Ithaca College, in upstate New York, Barrett rekindled their interest. “I had a costumes class, and started sewing again. When I decided to specialize in props, my sewing tended to upholstery,” which is exacting. Transferring their stitching skill to quilting gave Barrett more opportunity for expression. “Slip covers have pretty strict specifications,” they said, laughing.
How did the quilting interest come about? Barrett, who also worked on LCT’s current Beaumont production, McNeal, answered: “I had a friend who had started quilting at the Brooklyn Quilters Guild,” an organization, meeting monthly in-person and biweekly online, which describes itself as “a diverse group that shares a strong common thread – an interest in quilt making, and all the art, color, design and fabric that it encompasses.”
Barrett was joyfully surprised by their guild experience. “When I started seeing all these quilts, I realized that the field was much more expansive than I imagined. I thought it would be a great way to reconnect with my family history. My grandmother – my mom’s mom – died when I was young, but she was really big into quilting.” Personal handiwork of which Barrett is especially proud includes a small quilt, about 15” by 15”, she made for her mom. “We have an older cat at home who likes to lounge on the table. I made a flower-pattern quilt for the cat to sit on. She loves it.”
Barrett mentioned a further connection between the Brooklyn guild and The Blood Quilt: “We had two members, Thadine Wormly and Jacqueline Colson, come to speak to the actors. Jacqueline made a beautiful Abe Lincoln quilt that we are going to try to use in the production.” Definitely to be used is a collaboration quilt Wormly did with a woman from Gee’s Bend, a hamlet along the Alabama River famous for its quilting.
Many of the production’s other quilts have been generously lent by members of the Brooklyn Quilting Guild.” They derive from a beautiful tumble of fabrics, many of luxurious soft cotton. (Less beautiful: nylon. And don’t get Barrett started on Spandex. “I would never quilt in it. Nothing stays together.”) As Barrett showed them to me, I immediately became covetous, wishing that these glorious works, which will furnish The Blood Quilt set in myriad ways, could find a place in my own home.
I asked Barrett how these pieces are maintained. “I have a whole spreadsheet system to make sure everyone’s quilts get tracked and taken care of,” they replied. “Some people want me to wash their quilts and some people don’t. Instructions tend to be specific.”
A key reason why quilts can provide such a powerful dramatic metaphor, according to Barrett, “is the enormous amount of work that can go into one. People can toil on them for months or years – one woman told me she had spent over a thousand hours on her masterpiece.” Another reason for quilting’s power: “It’s a wonderful way to translate love into something tangible. The sisters in The Blood Quilt are struggling to reconnect as a unit after the death of their mother. What better way than through the effort and the beauty of making a quilt?”
Brendan Lemon is a freelance journalist in New York.
