New Mexico Quilt Survey

In 1985, MOIFA surveyed traditional quilting across the state of New Mexico. Fieldworkers Jeannette Lasansky and Nora Pickens contacted more than 200 quilt makers, interviewing many of them and photographing their work. As part of the project, more than 30 quilts were collected for the permanent collection and exhibited in New Mexico Country Quilts (October 1987 – September 1988) and New Mexico Patchwork Quilts (January – February 1986, Governor’s Gallery). Collected materials also resulted in a short documentary Any Woman Worth Her Salt produced by Tom McCarthy. Dorothy R. Zopf, one of the quilters interviewed , was inspired to conduct her own follow-up survey in the 1990s. In 2001, she published Surviving the Winter: The Evolution of Quiltmaking in New Mexico.

Funding for the Traditional Quilt Makers in New Mexico Survey project was generously provided by the International Folk Art Foundation.