First Ladies and the White House – Part 2

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During the Clinton administration (late 90s) I had the chance to tour the White House. It made quite an impression on me. The artwork, the architecture, the history….the ghosts of past administrations….our tour guide gave us a vivid history of each room we visited, and it made me want to learn more. I went from there, to the National Portrait Gallery, Ford’s Theatre, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Over the years I have picked up many books about the White House. The residents, the staff, and the dramas that unfolded there. Historic novels, biographies, and coffee table books…my collection has grown over the decades. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this 3-part blog series, I’ve been fortunate to meet some of the presidents and first ladies who made a life there, for 4 or 8 year terms. I have other connections to the White House through friends and family, as mentioned in Part 1. Hence, my curiosity and sometimes fascination.

However I had a 90+ year old friend here in Boulder, who started visiting the White House during the Roosevelt administration, and she ended up being a leader of the women’s rights movement in the Seventies, and knew every single president from Roosevelt on through Obama. At the end of her life she was thrilled to cast her early vote (a paper ballot) for Hillary Clinton, and it was a blessing that she did not live to see what happened after that election day.

As a little girl, Meg attended a private school in the DC area, while living with her grandparents. (A senator and his wife.) There was one little girl at school who seemed to be lonely, so Meg befriended her and invited her over to play. When the little girl reciprocated and invited her over to play at her house, she gave her an address…1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When Meg showed up at the address….it was the White House! And so she met FDR and got to know the Roosevelt family. Her little friend was FDR’s niece.

Meg was a founding member of the Committee of 200, an organization of national and international women entrepreneurs and corporate innovators formed to foster, celebrate, and advance women’s leadership in business. I knew her the last few years of her life, and she would invite me over for tea and ask me about our business and our philanthropy program. We would talk about many things and I always felt smarter after I left her kitchen table. She often would give me a book from her vast library as I left.

So, fast forward to August 2018. My friend Donna DeSoto was just starting to dream up her exhibit “Inspired by Washington DC” and she wrote to me and asked if I’d like to participate. (I had already made quilts for her Endangered Species and National Parks exhibits.) I jumped at the opportunity, and had a hard time deciding which 2 Washington DC icons to choose for my themes. So I gave her a list of 10-12 places in DC that I have loved and visited over the decades. I told her to see what everyone else picked, and then she could pick 2 for me from the leftover list.

A few months later she came back to me with the 2 she had picked for me: The Folger Shakespeare Library, and…the White House. What?!? How could the famous beautiful White House remain unchosen??

In her guidelines she had stated that there were to be no political statements in our artworks. So nobody had chosen the White House in the Fall of 2018 (think about what was happening then) because nobody felt they could resist being political.

I was thrilled with my 2 choices, so I set to work. First I visited the Folger Shakespeare Library, and by dropping a name of a curator friend at another DC museum, I got a private tour of the Reading Room with their curator. I took photos, bought a few books, and ended up making this detailed interior architectural view. (If you love Shakespeare, be sure to visit and if possible attend a play while you are in DC!)

Then I started the White House quilt. I had to think about it for a long time. The thing that really impresses me is that the White House is not just a building. It is an idea. It is the People’s House. It belongs to all of us. Administrations come and go, but the White House remains and is a symbol throughout the world. When people visit Washington DC they go to see the White House. They stand outside the fence and take photos of the building, and then take selfies with the house in the background. This goes on late into the night. How do I know? Because I always visit the White House when I visit DC. And I say a prayer for our country, and our democracy.

So I made this piece to represent the symbol and the inspiration of the White House. I titled the piece:

 

I also freemotion stitched the first part of the preamble to the Constitution – “We the People of the United States” – again to stress that this is the People’s House.

This piece was made with Intense Pencils and gel medium, freemotion stitching and applique. These were the first 2 architectural art quilts I had ever made, and it was a learning experience. I am now finishing up another architectural quilt for another one of Donna’s projects – Mount Vernon, which was the home of George and Martha Washington, and over 500 slaves during the time that he lived there. But that….is another story.

These 2 quilts are still traveling with the Washington DC exhibit.

You can see all of the DC quilts at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Feb 2025, and at the Quiltfest in Greenville SC in April 2025.

Watch for Part 3 of this series – about the quilt I made for the “Women’s Voices” exhibit at the Clinton Presidential Library.

READ:

White House Updates Public Tour With Enhanced Features: What’s New

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