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About Quilts by Marjie Cahn

Quilts by Marjie Cahn has its origins on 7th Avenue in New York City. During the 1940’s at Highlight Fashions my mentor was Grandpa Ben, a dress manufacturer. Scraps from “better women’s dresses” were my toys, my meditation and my medium for creative expression. Half a century and five generations later I play and create in fabric with my grandchildren. I sew and quilt with my friends and have had four generations working collaboratively to stitch a quilt celebrating Great Granny’s 90th birthday.

Structure, design and color of a fabric sometimes suggest the direction of a piece. However, social issues and the joys and sorrows of daily life are the themes from which I work. Every life event is cause for a celebratory quilt. Even sad events are reasons for joyful quilts. The clothing of a loved one who has passed away is a wonderful joyful way of remembering him or her.

I am self-taught as an artist. My formal education includes: Bard College, AB; Bank Street School of Education, MS; Boston University School of Social Work, MSW; and University of Massachusetts, EdD in qualitative research. I am a psychotherapist and a consultant. I am the founder of the Worcester Institute on Loss & Trauma, founded as a response to the Worcester, MA fire in 1999.

The inspiration for my 2009 show, ALL ABOUT COLOR, came from holding in my mind the images of flowers and colors from my garden. The confluence of three events prompted me to spend the winter 2009 creating an indoor fabric garden.

The events were the untimely death of my five year old Cairn Terrier, a fall on the ice and a diagnosis of celiac disease. Historically, I have stitched myself together as I did in the winter of ‘09. My remaining dog, the famous Ch Bingo, at my feet. I designed, sewed and worked at changing my diet, nurturing my wrist and imagining a more cheerful spring. Winter in Massachusetts is good reason to sew indoor gardens. It’s awe inspiring to see the beauty of the white landscape and ice-laden trees but for me its more heart warming to envision and create flowers.

Of my work the following has been written:

"These quilts have plenty of hand stitching, but they are Ultimately illustrations using fabric as a medium and they are intensively effective Cahn tells a story of a fictional family with an all too real-life secret. If each fabric could be said to have its own distinctive voice, Cahn has woven them into a chorus."

Christina L. Pappas, Worcester Magazine, October 1996

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