Carla Schardt ’51

Bellflower

Quilt A biology graduate, Carla (Curtis) Schardt is inspired by plant images. Schardt, who lives in Reston, Va., began quilting 20 years ago, after her husband died. “I needed something to do. You either hate it or you’re hooked. Fifty quilts later—I guess you’d say I’m hooked.” One of those 50 quilts, Castor Bean, part of a Healing Art series, hangs at Walter Reed Hospital, inspired by a friend and mentor who was hospitalized for cancer. “Thirty-five of us quilters decided she needed something to look at besides dreary, green walls,” remembers Schardt.

“One of the reasons I got into art quilts was to get away from very rigid ideas about how a quilt should be made. That kind of perfection isn’t what’s important to me. I can’t worry if my stitches meet the standards of the ‘quilt police,’ or if they don’t approve of sewing machines. Fabrics, textures, and colors—they are a fascination and an obsession.”