About

Lorraine Woodruff-Long

BIO

Lorraine Woodruff-Long is a self-taught San Francisco quilter with a primary focus on color, improvisation, and recycled/repurposed fabrics. 

Raised in Houston, and educated at University of Texas/Austin, Lorraine served in Peace Corps Kenya and afterwards moved to California as a “bucket list” dream to temporarily experience living in a progressive urban city.  She fell in love with San Francisco and never left.  After a career in marketing and advertising, Lorraine later worked in the nonprofit sector while raising two city kids with her architect husband before spring boarding into a fiber art practice prompted by the pandemic.

Lorraine’s work has been juried into art exhibitions at the de Young Museum/San Francisco, the California Heritage Museum/Santa Monica, the Sanchez Art Center/Pacifica, Muzeo Museum & Cultural Center/Anaheim, TAG Gallery/Los Angeles the Drawing Room/San Francisco, and the San Francisco Women Artists Network Gallery.  She has received numerous awards for her quilts at local, national and international quilt shows. Quilt exhibitions include the International Quilt Festival/Houston, QuiltCon, the Pacific International Quilt Festival, Visions in Cloth, and Quilt San Francisco among others. 

Lorraine is a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, San Francisco Quilt Guild, Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), East Bay Heritage Quilters, ArtSpanSF, Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art, and a volunteer with the Social Justice Sewing Academy Remembrance Project. Her work is included in the 2021 book, “Stitching Stolen Lives: The Social Justice Sewing Academy Remembrance Project.”

She currently teaches quilting at City College of San Francisco Extension and SCRAP-SF and teaches quilting workshops to guilds around the country. 

Video Link: Commentary Quilts: Evolution and Exploration – San Francisco Quilt Guild – May 2022

Video Link: San Francisco Quilt Guild: Quiltmaker Stories – April 2021

ARTIST STATEMENT

Lorraine Woodruff-Long/ Quilt Melt

One of my earliest memories is feeling compelled to touch and run my hands over bright, shiny colorful plastic buttons on a store rack. The same fluttery thrill bubbles up when I see collections of color in nature, art and everyday objects. It is this feeling that I seek to capture in my textile art and quilts.

Using mostly repurposed fabric from clothing and solid cotton fabric, I create improvisational quilts with pulsing energy, color and movement for the viewer. My passion in the fiber art of quilting is utilizing vivid, electric color and shapes to create an immersive polychromatic experience in addition to using textiles to express my political and personal beliefs.

I am inspired by the historic legacy of women quilters, weavers, and textile artists before me who have poured their creative energies into meaningful, useful and beautiful works of art for their homes and families. I pay homage to the quilters of Gees Bend, the works of Rosie Lee Tompkins, and the simple beauty of Amish quilters. Other sparks of inspiration include the intellectual and mind blowing statements and graphic art of Barbara Kruger, Judi Chicago, Yayoi Kusama, and Jenny Holzer.

EXHIBITIONS

2023

  • Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/The de Young Open 2023, San Francisco, CA
  • The Fifth U.S. Global Climate Assessment Report/Art x Climate, Washington D.C. 
  • International Quilt Festival/Twist on Tradition, Houston, TX
  • Muzeo Museum & Cultural Center/Anaheim & Brea Gallery/Threads That Bind, Brea, CA
  • Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
  • International Quilt Festival/In the American Tradition, Long Beach, CA
  • TAG Gallery/Made in USA – Freedom of Expression, Los Angeles, CA
  • Gallery-O-Rama/Politics: Not for Polite Conversation, San Francisco, CA
  • The Modern Quilt Guild/QuiltCon 2023, Atlanta, GA
  • The Museum of Northern California Art/For the Love of Birds, Chico, CA
  • Woman Made Gallery/Roe 2.0 Virtual Exhibition, Chicago, IL
  • Live Worms Gallery/Women Artists, San Francisco, CA
  • The Drawing Room/SKY, San Francisco, CA
  • The San Francisco Quilt Guild/Quilt San Francisco 2023
  • Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art/PORTALS, San Francisco, CA

2022

  • International Quilt Festival/In the American Tradition, Houston, TX
  • Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA  Honorable Mention, Innovation 
  • New Quilts of Northern California, Santa Clara, CA
  • Belvedere Tiburon Library Contemporary Abstract Art Juried Exhibition, Belvedere, CA
  • Envision Arts Online Exhibition/Beyond
  • Live Worms Gallery/TEXTural, San Francisco, CA
  • Drawing Room SF/Up in ARMS: Reproductive Rights in a Post-Roe World, San Francisco
  • Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art/The Wild Side, Arc Studios & Gallery,  San Francisco, CA
  • San Francisco Women Artists/Melting: Climate Crisis – Water is Life, San Francisco, CA
  • Sanchez Art Center/Left Coast Annual Juried Exhibition 2022, Pacifica, CA  (Juror & Artists Talk Video)
  • The Modern Quilt Guild/QuiltCon 2022, Phoenix, CA
  • ArtSpan Juried Auction, San Francisco, CA
  • East Bay Heritage Art Quilters/Voices in Cloth, Richmond, CA
  • Drawing Room SF/Women Rising, San Francisco, CA
  • Envision Art Show/Black & White, Online Exhibition
  • O’Hanlon Art Center/Monochromatic, Mill Valley, CA
  • Fusion Art/Black & White, Online Exhibition

2021

  • The Modern Quilt Guild/QuiltCon 2021, Virtual
  • Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
  • San Francisco Women Artists/Verdant, San Francisco, CA
  • California Heritage Museum/SAQA Art Quilts 2, Santa Monica, CA
  • ArtSpan San Francisco Open Studios Collateral Competition Finalist, San Francisco, CA
  • ArtSpan Juried Auction, San Francisco, CA

2020 

  • de Young Museum/de Young Bay Area Open Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
  • Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
  • @Covid19Quilt Project, Online Exhibition

2019

  • The Modern Quilt Guild/QuiltCon 2019, Austin, TX
  • San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA – Third Place Hand Quilted
  • San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA – Honorable Mention Pieced Traditional Large
  • Envisions Arts/Earth-Mother Exhibit, Denton, TX Honorable Mention
  • Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
  • New Quilts of Northern California, Santa Clara, CA – First Place, Best Visual Impact
  • San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA

2018

  • Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA

2017

  • New Quilts of Northern California, Santa Clara, CA First Place, Visual Impact
  • Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
  • San Francisco Quilt Guild, San Francisco, CA

2015 

  • San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA – Third Place, Pieced Large & Honorable Mention

2013 

  • San Francisco Quilt Guild Show, San Francisco, CA – Honorable Mention

PUBLICATIONS/PRESS

TEACHING

  • City College of San Francisco Extension/Fall 2023 & Spring 2024, Quilting Series: Part 1- “Getting to the Top”, Part 2 – “Crossing the Finish”
  • SCRAP-SF: Double-sided Table Runner Series, Fall 2023
  • SCRAP-SF: Quilting Basics Series, Fall 2022 & Spring 2023
  • Various Quilt Guild Workshops: Improv Mosaic 1-2-3