Congratulations to Ruth B. McDowell who has been selected as the 45th Honoree to be inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame, July 17-19, 2014 in Marion, Indiana. Ruth is a fulltime professional quilt artist. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 with a B.S. in Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited in juried, invitational, and solo shows nationally and in Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia.
The inspiration for most of McDowell’s 520 quilts to date has come from nature. Her artistic style has shown consistent development and her unique approach to pieced quilts has inspired ten books. McDowell’s 1982 “Twelve Dancing Princesses (Or The Shoes That Danced Themselves To Pieces)” and “The Yellow Maple” (1988) were included in the 20th Century’s Best American Quilts, selected by a Blue Ribbon panel of the top foremost quilting experts of the late 20th century from many different fields of quilting expertise.
Since that first quilt in 1972, McDowell has shared her exceptional design and teaching skills all over the world and her award winning quilts are highly sought by collectors.
McDowell wrote her first book, Pattern on Pattern (Quilt Digest Press) in 1991. Her 1996 book Art and Inspirations: Ruth B. McDowell (C&T Publishing) was a retrospective of Ruth’s career at that point and features full-color illustrations of 97 of her quilts, many color details and drawings, and a fascinating text. As Ruth refined her understanding of both the designing and teaching of pieced quilts, she rewrote and further expanded her best-selling book Ruth B. McDowell's Piecing Workshop and now offers on her web site www.ruthbmcdowell.com several of her titles as print-on-demand and e-books.
Just click PLAY to enjoy some of her fine work.