Love & Money Quilts from Inspiration to Completion

Nov 20, 2024 | My Art & Studio

Title Card for Love and Money Quilts by Elaine Luther
I took a watercolor painting class at the park district, when I was in high school, and the teacher said that she was once inspired to do a painting by an oil stain in a puddle of water.  Her point was that inspiration was everywhere.  I did not become a watercolorist, but I remembered that comment.

The Inspiration

The inspiration for this series of three quilts/protest banners came from a single Instagram post, of a photo of a single page from a newsletter at the Feminist Library in London.  The newsletter is from the Campaign for Wages for Housework, that took place in the UK in the 1960s and 70s.

Some phrases leapt out at me from the photo – including some in the protest posters in the photo, and some from the text.  I made quilts that say, “Thank Us with Money,” “We Want Love and Money Thank You Very Much,” and “We Can’t Afford to Live on Love.”

Screenshot of Instagram Post by LaurenLifeandStuff

Screenshot of Instagram Post by LaurenLifeArtandStuff.

These works are a logical extension of my art on domestic labor that I’ve been making on textiles since 2021/22 and in other forms since forever, or at least 2013 (with the Our Ladies of Perpetual Housework).
Let’s take a look at this series, “Love & Money,” one quilt at a time.  I’ve just finished the binding on the last of the three of these quilts, but haven’t gotten the final, glamour photos of them.  Even so, I’m ready to share them with the world, so here are photos from the making of these quilts, and photos from the studio.

The Thank Us with Money Quilt

Thank Us with Money Quilt by Elaine Luther.

Thank Us with Money Quilt, 2024, as installed at Art Reach of Mid Michigan. Copyright Elaine Luther 2024.

The letters for this one are laser cut out of cotton fabric.  I had planned to use those for each quilt in the series, but they’re a bit pricey, and the order form is cumbersome.  The fabrics for this one each represent an element of housework or carework.  Cooking is overrepresented, because well, have you ever looked for fabric that explores kinkeeping, child rearing, or emotional labor?  I was lucky that the Robert Kaufman line of fabric includes some ironing fabric that I had a bit of, and the international money fabric.  I added in some “women at lunch” vintage fabric, one with children, and the milk and cookies fabric is meant to stand in for afterschool snacks and conversation care work, and parenting more generally.  And then so much cooking fabric, because that’s what’s out there.  The “women at lunch” fabric is meant to represent kinkeeping, which is a southern word about all that work, usually done by women, to keep the extended family together, in touch, and getting along.  It’s the sending of birthday cards, remembering those birthdays, organizing family reunions, hosting the holidays.  All of the things.
I went through a range of ideas for the design for this one, and had some ideas for patterns that I couldn’t quit figure out how to make.  I borrowed a ruler that helps you make “spiderweb” blocks, which is what this one is made of.  The triangular ruler made it quite doable.  I’d never made blocks like this, but it wasn’t bad.  Luckily I only had to make six of them.  I top quilted them on the diagonal and added the letters at the end.

The We Want Love & Money Thank You Very Much Quilt

"We Want Love and Money Thank You Very Much" quilt by Elaine Luther 2024.

We Want Love and Money Thank You Very Much,” quilt by Elaine Luther, as installed at Art Reach of Mid Michigan. Copyright Elaine Luther 2024.

For this one, I had to learn to piece heart blocks, which is much harder than you’d think.  But I got it done.  It started out larger, but it was very tall and skinny.  It needed borders to make it look balanced.  Instead of adding borders, I took a row off the top and made the whole thing smaller.  The American money fabric for this one is from JoAnn’s fabric store.  I bought some online, but then needed more but couldn’t find it in the store.  A staffer helped me find it, it was with the “pastimes and hobbies” fabrics, next to all the sportsball fabrics.  I guess that makes this about gambling on sports?  I wasn’t looking at sports fabrics, so I never would have found it.

The text for this one was made using Solar Fast light reactive dye in red, on cotton fabric.  All of the fabrics for the hearts were small pieces I had in my studio, except the candy one, which is another Robert Kaufman fabric.  I wanted to use that one as a symbol of Mothers Day Gifts, which, while nice, do not make up for a lifetime of lost income and lack of retirement.  With that fabric, I’m also referencing the idea that women who “stay home” with their children are sitting on the couch eating bonbons.  It was surprisingly difficult to find just the right chocolate fabric, but this one was perfect.

Back in December 2023, I wrote a blog post on the piecing of those hear blocks, you can read that here.

The We Can’t Afford to Live on Love Quilt

"We Can't Afford to Live on Love" quilt by Elaine Luther.

“We Can’t Afford to Live on Love” quilt by Elaine Luther, as installed at Art Reach of Mid Michigan. Copyright Elaine Luther 2025.

The main fabrics for this one are from Spoonflower.  Because when you need fabric of cat food cans, that’s where you go.  Oddly specific fabric needs?  The options are to design it yourself and have it printed, or see if someone else has already designed it.  I went with an oversized 9-patch for this quilt, to really show off the fabrics.  Just as I was finishing this one, a friend texted and asked if I wanted a bag of quilt blocks and scraps.  You know I said yes.  Included in the plastic grocery store bag of goodies, were these small pieces, cut out in odd shapes that are slanted on both sides, in a really wild array of colors and patterns.  They were cut out for a double wedding ring quilt.  I used those to make this scrappy border and I really like what it adds to the quilt.

A pile of fabric bits, in the studio of Elaine Luther.

A pile of fabric bits, in the studio of Elaine Luther.  These were used for the border of “We Can’t Afford to Live on Love.”

The text for this one was printed on fabric treated with cyanotype chemicals.  As I write this blog post, and see the screenshot of the Wages for Housework Newspaper, above, I see I got the quote slightly wrong on this one!  This is what happens when it takes a long time to finish a project.
This quilt top is done but it’s not quilted yet.  It’s taken me over a year, I believe I started on these in October 2023, to finish all the tops and top quilt and bind three of them, plus one more that’s almost done and related, that I can show you soon.  This last quilt, I will probably send out to be longarmed by someone else.  (Top quilted using a long arm quilting machine.)

That will make this quilt look a bit different from the rest, and also, this one is possibly a bit bigger than the others, which would make it even harder to top quilt on a home sewing machine.

And I have more art to make.  Andrew Simonet recently shared survey results from artists, someone who did the survey wrote,

“Part of my job as an artist is getting the help I need to realize my art.”

I took a screenshot of that and printed it out to remind me of this truth.
And I believe it – that getting help is part of my job as an artist.  Getting help with my art admin work, such as my newsletter, and graphic design tasks, has been amazing in the past more-than-a-year, to help me get more done.
It’s difficult, mentally/emotionally, to pay for a task that I “could” do, and also, I don’t love the process of top quilting (does anyone?  when using a home sewing machine?) or binding.  Which is why I dragged my feet and it’s taken more than a year to finish these relatively three small quilts.

Oh right, size.  Why are these quilts all about 40″ x 60″?

In August-December 2023 one of my protest quilts was in a show at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, the show was called Women Pulling on the Threads of Social Discourse, and it was curated by the CAMP Gallery in Miami, Florida.  For that show, you would submit a proposal for a piece, and then make it, if invited to.  I was invited to be in the show – my proposal was a combination of a photo of the work in progress, with a digital overlay of the last bit, since I don’t draw.  The CAMP Gallery’s requirement was that the piece had to be 40″ x 60″ because according to their research, that was a common size for textile protest banners.  Having already made one protest quilt that size, I decided to stick with it.
Some of the quilts decided to be larger or smaller, because of how the design worked out, but my goal size for each of them was 40″ x 60″.
I am absolutely thrilled to be done, or mostly done, making this series, so that I can include these quilts in my exhibition proposal for my next solo show, as well as enter them in other juried shows.
I have so many ideas for more protest quilts and am actively working on one of them.  And also, I’m enjoying a little pause to work on smaller, faster pieces, such as actual smaller works, miniature ones, and stand-alone textiles that are not quilts.

But Wait, There’s More!

As I scroll through the draft of this blog post, it seems incredible that the series is only three quilts and it’s taken over a year, but wait!  There are more quilts!  During the same year, I also made:
"Lifting up Women" quilt by Elaine Luther Copyright Elaine Luther 2024

Completed quilt by Elaine Luther, with quote from Doug Emhoff. September, 2024. The quote says, “Lifting up women so that they can carry out important work is a very manly thing to do.” -Doug Emhoff. As installed at Art Reach of Mid Michigan.

Above, the Lifting up Women quilt. You can read the blog post about the making of that one, here.
Whole cloth quilt, work in progress, showing custom fabric. By Elaine Luther, 2024.

Whole cloth quilt, work in progress, showing custom fabric. By Elaine Luther, 2024.

Speaking of Spoonflower, for this quilt, I needed fabric showing payment in the form of a paper check.  Couldn’t find it.  So, with technical assistance from artist Becka Rahn, we created this fabric, with images of vintage checks in these glorious colors.  This one is a whole cloth quilt that will soon have something appliquéd on the front of it.  That’s my task for today, when I finish this blog post.

I love this fabric so much, and if you love it, you can buy it on Spoonflower!

This quilt is not directly inspired by the newspaper for the Campaign for Wages for Housework, but it’s very much about domestic labor and money, income, the value society does not place on women’s labor and care work in general.

Update, August 9, 2025, The “What if Aprons…” Quilt is Done, Here it is:

"What if aprons..." Quilt by Elaine Luther 2025.

“What if aprons…” Quilt by Elaine Luther 2025. The fabric timecard in the pocket has a quote from Michelle Hiskey, it says, “What if aprons came with pockets for paychecks and 401(K) matches?”

"All the Luck I Can Get Quilt" by Elaine Luther 2024

“All the Luck I Can Get Quilt” by Elaine Luther, Copyright, 2024

Another recently finished quilt is “All the Luck I Can Get,” you can read the blog post about that one, here.

Binding

Binding is that fabric at the edges of quilts.  It covers the edges of the quilt sandwich, which is made up of the quilt top, batting, and backing fabric.  For this series, I have mostly made my own bias binding.

Bias binding made by Elaine Luther.

Bias binding made by Elaine Luther to finish the quilts in this series.

I made bias binding by hand for these quilts, and I also bought some manufactured bias binding, in 10 yard rolls.  Because the stuff they sell in the little packages in the store used to be 4 yards, now they’re 3 yards, which means you have to buy two or more and sew them together.  By buying a spool of 10 yards of binding, I could avoid that no-fun step of connecting binding ends.

And that’s it!  That’s my quilting making journey of late 2023 to late 2024!  I also made lots of miniature quilts, a couple of personal ones, and taught lots of students to sew, quilt and make clothes.

What’s Next for these Quilts and What they Mean

These quilts are all part of my exhibition proposal for my next solo show.  If you know of a terrific gallery space that loves feminist art, please let me know!  These quilts are not meant to be a complaint about my life.  Sometimes people think that.  These quilts are about women’s labor, domestic labor, care work and the societal complete and total lack of valuing of this really important work.  I happen to have done a lot of it.  But the solutions aren’t at the personal level.  They’re at the societal level.  We need structural change.

There’s so much reading I could recommend, but you could start with Holding it Together by Jess Calarco.  Here’s a quote from her that I printed on a doily:

Quote by Jess Calarco on a doily, Solar Fast dye print by Elaine Luther.

Quote by Jess Calarco on a doily, Solar Fast dye print by Elaine Luther, 2023.  Photographed in a 2023 solo show.

I’m also inspired by some terrific movements and organizations out there, for the rights of domestic workers, for pregnant women and mothers in the workforce, and for childcare. Here are a few of them:

The National Domestic Workers Alliance
https://www.domesticworkers.org

Pregnant then Screwed (U.K.)
https://pregnantthenscrewed.com

MomsFirst (U.S.)
https://momsfirst.us

Thanks, Alice!

And lastly, I want to thank Alice Gabb for her inspirational talk on the history of banners. I was lucky to attend her talk online and learn about the history of banner making in the U.K., and the women and banner makers of the Greenham Common, which I hadn’t known about.  It was excellent to sort of know where I am in this long history of banner making and protest banners made of textiles.

This post was updated on August 9, 2025 to update the photos.  Newer, better photos replaced older ones of the three Love & Money Quilts.  The new photos were taken in August 2025 at Art Reach of Mid Michigan, in Mt. Pleasant, MI.

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