About Pointless Sisters

In 1971 there was a major exhibit of Amish Quilts at the Whitney Museum. People saw these quilts as works of art mainly because they were similar to the hard edge, abstraction paintings that were being produced at that time in the formal art world. In subsequent years quilts came off the beds and onto the walls in the public’s appreciation of their intrinsic value as works of art and the maker’s personal message in their approach to color, design and techniques. 

Adventuresome quilters nationwide, began exploring new techniques in surface design and the textile arts. The first Quilt National Exhibit was in 1979. By the early 1990s, no longer satisfied by following heritage patterns and traditional techniques, artistic quilters began to practice techniques that are more at home in the painting and dyeing studio than the sewing room. The Studio Art Quilt Association was formed in 1989 and their first conference was in 1995.

In the early 2000s when Gerrie Congdon was looking for an art quilt group to join in the Sonoma County, California area, not finding an open one, she decided that the best solution was to start her own mini group with other interested quilters from the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild. 

The mini group was named “The Pointless Sisters” as an homage to the Pointer Sisters, the music group, but also as a reference to the fact that as art quilters we do not need to follow the rules. One rule being that points in pieced blocks must match.
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The group met to explore painting, dyeing techniques, stitching and design challenges. They made blocks for one another, worked independently and together on collaborative pieces. They grew beyond meeting in each others’ homes and community buildings, left the guild and eventually, as an art club, began renting a room for their monthly meetings at the Luther Burbank Art and Garden Center on Yulupa in Santa Rosa. The group now numbers 50 members with a waiting list.