Lura Schwarz Smith has been creating art quilts for over thirty years. Originally showing in galleries in the 70s and 80s, for the past years she has been showing quilts and receiving awards at regional, national, and international quilt shows. At our Quilt Fest 2009, you would have seen her quilt “Seams a Lot Like Degas.” In this quilt Lura used traditional blocks in an unconventional manner, redrafting the blocks to fit the dresses of the ballerinas. This piece has the honor of being included in “100 Best American Quilts of the 20th Century” and will be included in the quilts on exhibit. Lura was also asked to be in the “30 Distinguished Quilt Artists of the World” exhibit at the first Tokyo Dome quilt show in 2002.
For many years Lura has used fabric pastels, inks and markers to add images to fabric. With her husband, Kerby, Lura is now adding digital images to her art quilts. Lura and Kerby teach digital quilt classes and produce art quilts using digital imagery. They have just co-authored a book about digital quilting, which will be available through our Museum Store.
