About Pointless Sisters

The Pointless Sisters is a group of art quilters based in Sonoma County, California. Our name is a playful nod to the musical group The Pointer Sisters — and to the fact
that, as art quilters, we don’t have to follow traditional quilting rules (like perfectly
matching points in pieced blocks).
The group, which is capped at 50 members, meets monthly at the Luther Burbank Art
and Garden Center in Santa Rosa. We show our work in multiple exhibitions throughout the year. See our Events page for upcoming shows, explore past work in the Gallery and meet our artists in Members.
What is an Art Quilt?
Art quilts are textile works made with quilting techniques, created to be experienced as original visual art — often meant for the wall rather than the bed. Like other art forms, they reflect the maker’s choices in color, design, materials and technique.
A quick timeline of the art quilt movement
  • 1971: The exhibition Amish Quilts at the Whitney Museum helped viewers see quilts as art — especially in the context of hard-edge, abstract painting.
  • Late 1970s: Quilts increasingly moved from beds to walls as makers and audiences focused on quilts’ visual impact and personal expression.
  • 1979: The First Quilt National exhibition showcased innovative, contemporary
  • quiltmaking.
  • 1989–1995: The Studio Art Quilt Association formed in 1989 and held its firs conference in 1995, supporting the growing field.
  • 1990s onward: Many art quilters expanded into surface design — painting dyeing, printing and stitching approaches often associated with fine art studios.
How our group began
In the early 2000s, when Gerrie Congdon looked for an art quilt group to join in Sonoma County and couldn’t find one with open membership, she started a small group with other interested quilters from the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild. The Pointless Sisters became an independent group, separate from the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild, and continues to thrive more than 20 years later.