Sally Garoutte’s first profession was nursing, but her curiosity about domestic arts led her in altogether new directions. She studied weaving, oil painting, silk screen printing and other textile arts, receiving her BA in 1976. Her one bed-sized quilt “Friends and Relations” was made in 1974 and was featured on the cover of Textile Chemist and Colorist, 1978.

 

In 1980, Sally’s dedication to accurate research led her to found the American Quilt Study Group: an organization that presents papers which are published in their annual journal, Uncoverings. She was its editor for the first 7 editions, but turned that task over to others due to illness. She also wrote textiles articles for The Quilters Journal, edited and published by Honoree Joyce Gross. The two women founded The Mill Valley Quilt Authority, whose quilt shows, “A Patch in Time,” helped promote the quilt revival on the West Coast.

 

Sally presented four of her own paper for AQSG. Her primary research on Marseilles quilts remains one of the most significant studies of these quilts to date. Sally’s library and textiles are now at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where the AQSG headquarters are located.