Declaration 1776 Exhibit Opening and Reception: “Celebrating the Sestercentennial of America’s Patchwork of States Peoples, Ideals,” Sara Reimer Farley, quiltmaker, researcher and author

Sara Reimer Farley is a quiltmaker, researcher, and author. She began making quilts at fifteen, using her maternal grandmother’s Kansas City Star pattern for “Cog Wheel” and stitching on her grandmother’s treadle sewing machine. From the beginning, Sara’s quilts have been traditional in pattern and technique, but she interprets the design, sometimes subtly and sometimes boldly, in nontraditional ways. Her favorite pattern is the nine patch. Sara’s research has focused on quiltmakers in Kansas, and she is fascinated with “herstories” of their lives and processes. As a participant in the Kansas Quilt Project and other documentation projects, her focus was on interviewing the makers or quilt owners. Sara’s presentation “Celebrating the Sestercentennial of America’s Patchwork of States, Peoples, Ideals” looks at those kinds of stories as she honors and explores 250 years of the peoples, events, places, symbols, documents, states, and service that have pieced together our country.