Laura McDowell Hopper is a woman of many passions who remarkably has managed to blend these passions seamlessly into a quickly-growing career in the textile world. Originally, Laura trained as a classical violist as a child and spent years hand sewing. However, after the sudden and unexpected death of her mother, she turned to machine quilting as a way to occupy her thoughts. As she found solace in quilting, Laura honed her skills making other people’s patterns. But she soon began to take more design risks in her work. She also found ways to blend her love of music into the minimalist-style quilts she designed. These pieces have been shown at QuiltCon, the International Quilt Festival, American Quilter’s Society, and more. You may also recognize Laura from her appearances on quilting podcasts, her lectures at QuiltCon 2018, and her role as a BERNINA ambassador. Her articles on quilt preservation have been published in QuiltCon Magazine, and her quilt “The River” was featured in the MQG’s book “Modern Quilts: Designs of the New Century.” Laura is a member of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild and serves on their board.
Laura’s other great passion is her day job, as a museum curator specializing in textile preservation. Laura is the curator at the Pick Museum of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University, an academic museum with an incredible collection of textiles from around the world. Her recent show, co-curated with the Michigan State University Museum, titled “Quilts and Human Rights”, included more than 50 quilts centering on themes of social justice from all over the world. It received critical acclaim for taking a raw and powerful look at issues such as civil rights, sexual assault, immigration, race relations and more.
And her newest, and most exciting news, is that she was recently hired on as a writer for Quiltfolk Magazine! Her first articles will appear in Issue 7, due out this summer! Welcome, Laura!
Continue Reading
