Eliza Hardy Jones: Song Quilts

How can the ephemeral, short-lived experience of a musical performance be expressed in a tangible, enduring art form?

Musician and quiltmaker Eliza Hardy Jones explores this question in her Song Quilts project. Jones traveled across the U.S. and Northwest Russia recording folk songs sung by women, which she then transcribed into written music. Next, she developed a notation method that translates pitch—the highness or lowness of a sound—into color, and rhythm into shape. The resulting quilts are “read” from top left to bottom right. Jones selected predominant colors and quilting patterns to reflect her impressions of the song, the singer, and the experience of sharing music. With each quilt, Jones materialized the women’s voices as they sang to preserve their communities’ traditions and identity.

To listen to each quilt’s song on your smartphone, scan the QR code at the bottom of each quilt’s label.

Eliza Hardy Jones (b. 1980) is a quiltmaker and internationally touring musician, singer, and songwriter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She currently tours with Grammy-nominated artists Iron & Wine and Grace Potter, in addition to releasing her own original music. Jones has given talks on her quilts across the U.S. and in Russia, and her work has been featured in various quilt publications. According to Jones, she “inherited a love of stitch and song from a long line of wild women, musicians, and seamstresses.”

Eliza Hardy Jones: Song Quilts was organized and presented by the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, February 6 – April 14, 2020.