Tiny Bits and Pieces
One of the debut exhibitions in the new Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising building, Tiny Bits and Pieces featured 116 miniature quilts. The quilts were designed and sewn from scraps of fabric by College of Health and Human Sciences alumna Lucile Hawks (M.S. home economics, ’58), for whom the gallery was named after.
The nimble hands and nimble mind of Kansas native Lucile Hawks created these “tiny bits and pieces”, as she calls them. An accomplished seamstress who is now in her late nineties, Lucile did not start quilting until the 1980s when she retired from a decades-long career teaching Home Economics in Kansas public high schools. Of her years in the education profession, Lucile recalls proudly that she developed teaching methods not used in the books, Lucile had students set their own goals and then met with each on a weekly basis to review her progress. One of the first things her students learned was how to use a thimble, and that there was no fooling around in her class – students would come in and get to work. Building on her 1939 bachelor’s degree in Home Economics and Art from Kansas State College (now University), Lucile completed her master’s degree at CSU in 1958, by spending four summers in Fort Collins taking two intensive four-week courses simultaneously – at that time, tuition for each course was $44! Lucile’s course of study to achieve a master’s degree in Home Economics Education between 1954 and 1958 was comprised of a wide variety of subject matter from Organic Chemistry (C 12) and General Physics (Ph 1) to Applied Dress Design (TC 85) and Food Selection and Preparation (FN 31).
Just for a moment, picture this visual feast of hand-stitched mini-quilts as if they were full-sized. Imagine the many years’ worth of patience and skill required to work with scraps of fabric only a few inches square. Now, consider the mini-quilts again, just as they appear before you in this case. Picture Lucile at work on these quilts in her basement sewing room: fabric scraps came from her mother’s sewing basket, rummage sales, and fabric sample books – a practical Kansan, she kept the scraps in apple boxes up on cinder blocks. Beginning about 1985, Lucile first made four full-size quilts before switching to create these miniature quilts around 1990. Of all the steps involved, she particularly enjoyed combining fabric colors and designing the quilting patterns – the decorative and structural stitching that joins all the layers together, once the quilt top is pieced. Her tools included a $45 Singer sewing machine, which she wore out years ago, a rotary cutter, and – students, are you listening? – that thimble!
Lucile Hawks generously donated these quilts to the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising between 2006 and 2014, for students of all needle arts to appreciate. She feels strongly that “education opens new worlds to people [and that textile collections help] preserve the past and bring wonder and beauty into the lives of others”. Tiny Bits and Pieces is the first exhibition of the Lucile Hawks mini-quilt collection at the Avenir Museum.
