Carol Johnson has won hundreds and hundreds of ribbons over the past 43 years. She then took 609 of those ribbons and stitched them together into a quilt, which won her yet another blue ribbon in 2023.
"Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women" on Display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
From the Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Explore the creative practice of Amish quilters in the United States. Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women looks beyond quilting as a utilitarian practice. It reveals historical quilting among the Amish as an aesthetic endeavor that walked a line between cultural and individual expression. The quilts paradoxically twin the plain with the spectacular, tradition with innovation, and a dismissal of personal pride with objects often seen as extraordinary artworks."