Eleanor Kagan

✨I’m a multidisciplinary artist and audio documentarian whose work focuses on memory, place, and the stories embedded in everyday materials. My interest in quilt research grew out of years producing narrative podcasts and radio stories, where I frequently conducted archival research—digging into oral histories, personal letters, photographs, and material culture to surface overlooked narratives. In quilts, I found a similarly rich archive: tactile records of lives, often made by those excluded from official histories. As I began making quilts myself, I became fascinated by the ways textiles preserve personal, political, and cultural memory. I strive to make the intangible tangible through narrative quiltmaking using found and repurposed materials. I see quilt research as an extension of the documentary impulse—attentive to both what is said and unsaid, seen and felt. I’m especially drawn to the intersection of storytelling and object-making, and the potential quilts hold as historical documents, aesthetic statements, and acts of resistance. Quilt research allows me to connect my background in journalism with my passion for material culture and to contribute to a lineage of makers and storytellers.✨ Website: eleanorkagan.com Instagram: instagram.com/bloomsdaymakes 🎉Congratulations to all of our Fellowship winners! 🎉 For more information about seminar, to register, and to become a member visit americanquiltstudygroup.org/46th-annual-aqsg-seminar or click the link in our bio. We can’t wait to see you!🦞 #americanquiltstudygroup #aqsg #portlandseminar2025 #quiltstudy #textile #quilt #research

All My Teenage Movie Tickets 111 x 69 2026 Quilting cotton, bed sheets, and paper. Machine pieced, hand quilted. 💫💫💫 I’ve been working on this one for so long, and I am so happy I can finally share it. This quilt contains 155 paper movie ticket stubs I acquired between the ages of 12 and 19, from Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) to The Prestige (2005). They sat for over twenty years in a plastic baggie in a box in a storage unit, until one day they called to be let out. On some, the ink was faded and barely readable. One was crumpled as if it had gone through the wash. I began by entering the data into a spreadsheet. Titles, dates, locations, times, and ticket prices. Armageddon cost $4.50. I saw Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace three times in two weeks; the next week, I saw Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me twice in two days. There was a run in 2000 where I saw Bring It On, But I’m A Cheerleader, and Almost Famous back to back as late summer turned to fall. As I logged every ticket, stories emerged, as did flaws in the data. I have one for Pokemon: The Movie, though I’m positive I bought it so I could sneak into Sleepy Hollow. Some of these films had a lasting impact; others I don’t remember at all. I added 13 categories based on these feelings and experiences. Eventually, I had over 1,800 points of data. Over seven months, I created a visual representation of this data in fabric. I assigned each category a color, and each stub is surrounded by its categories, presented in chronological order. An archive of my pop cultural sensibility, my emotional development — it’s nine feet tall and soft to the touch. Making this quilt has been a profoundly personal process, so I intend to keep the categories to myself. But I invite you to seek yourself and your own path to self-realization in the films, the colors, and their memories.

Tip Well, Tip Often 34x34” 2024 Sequins, rhinestones, beads, denim, cotton. 90% of the fabrics for this quilt were repurposed from thrifted, gifted, and found materials. Pieced by machine; appliquéd, embroidered, stoned, and quilted by hand with silver metallic thread. ⭐️✨⭐️ The prompt for my guild’s (@brooklyn_quilters_guild ) fall fence show this year was “The Stories We Tell: Fantasy, Folklore and Folly.” Those words immediately conjured in my mind the experience of sitting in the tiny, dark back room of Branded Saloon watching @switchnplay shows, as each amazing performer sparkled in the spotlight. We show our appreciation for their art by cheering, clapping and importantly—tipping. I wanted to make a quilt that made a viewer feel a similar sense of awe. And I wanted to place a Star (aka Lone Star) — one of the oldest and most recognizable traditional quilt patterns — in the context of the modern queer space. It suggests the searching and longing for the knowledge of queer and trans quilters of past eras; the desire to see what shapes queer hands created. Sequins and rhinestones are at their full strength and sparkle when they’re reflected under a spotlight, but just as much when seen in the freedom of a shining sun. They conjure joy, the urgency of togetherness, persistence, endurance. (Ask anyone who has tried to clean up glitter). Queer people have always existed, and exist in the history of all art and craft practices. This quilt invites these ancestors into the glittering spotlight to stand alongside the communities shaping queer art and expression today, and suggests a way we can materially support them. 💫🌟💫 I gave a little talk about the creation of and inspirations behind this quilt that’s linked in my bio! My bit starts at 35:30 but I recommend watching the whole thing to get to know the amazing work of my cohort in #quiltmakinghp with @heidi.parkes which has given me, among many other things, the language to describe this creative process. 💖 Special thanks to @christopherbrianking for taking most of these photos.

Self Portrait, 2026 46” x 36” Cotton, silk Machine and hand-pieced, hand-quilted 🌀🌀🌀 Artists* will be like “this is my most personal, private and emotional work yet” and it’s a bunch of colorful stripes. *Artists are me Anyway, here’s a new one 🖤 Every process is non-linear! Yet when you’re making a quilt you have to decide at some point to stop! I love that tension! 🌀🌀🌀 I made this quilt to seek calm, listen to desire, let it flow through me, allow truths to process, allow uncertainty to exist. Sewing each strip was an act of meditation; quilting each X passed another second. I had to make the decision to stop, even though this process is not linear and remains unfinished. Design and technique inspired by @ml_wilkie 🌀🌀🌀 Come see this quilt LIVE AND IN THE FLESH at the @brooklyn_quilters_guild fence show on Saturday, May 30 from 11-4pm at 245 Prospect Park W in Windsor Terrace.

Thank you to all who came to Lean In’s opening reception! Thank you to @ellaa_lang and @leacawthorne for curating and producing such a wonderful group show, and to @oldstonehousebklyn for hosting. These are just a few of the 34 stunning small works on display through April 26. Thank you for reaching out to (gently) touch my piece, which I gave permission for (see last slide), and thank you to the people who didn’t yet know about the permission and who gasped at the perceived transgression when other people did it. It’s an honor to both create and diffuse tension in an art space 😇 (I wore @janellerabbott JRAT of course.)

Can you feel it? Spring is coming 🌱 and I’m hosting another birding/sewing workshop on Long Island! Join me at @nassaumuseum on [UPDATE: NEW DATE] Sunday, May 31st for a chill bird walk around the property where we will focus on observing and noticing. Maybe we will even see some early spring migrants. Then we will make these observations tactile in fabric and thread. No experience necessary — all materials, including binoculars, will be provided. Link in bio!

Some of the quilts from Quilt Con 2026 that I can’t stop thinking about. Artists tagged when I could - plus: 4 - Protect the Dolls by Rider and Johnny Flynn (ages 10 and 8) 5 - My Way by Marlene B. Jones 6 - House Top by Dorris P. Hacketts 7 - Ghost Castle by Ferris Tashey (age 4) 8 - STARin’ Contest by Everett Kroeker (age 13) 19 - Job’s Tears by Lue Ida McCloud 20 - Based on Race by Casey Petersen

Some details, stitching, texture, and piecing from Quilt Con 2026 that I can’t stop thinking about. (Artists tagged when I could - plus Marlene B. Jones, @jennifercandon michaela_g_romesburg norstar_german)

🚨 I’m excited to have a freaky little fuzzy piece in this! You’ll want to touch it, believe me, and maybe you can. We’ll see. My @brooklyn_quilters_guild pals @ellaa_lang and @leacawthorne have curated a show that invites you to lean in and closely consider what’s before you: ✨ What happens when your work no longer needs to be large or functional? I am interested in what makes us lean in and look a little more closely. What makes you stop in your tracks on the way to work? What makes you smile on an afternoon in the park? What makes you look in confusion/curiosity? ✨ Three events for you to attend at @oldstonehousebklyn : March 14: Opening 6:30-8:30 March 22: Free Community Day April 12 & 19: Quilt Workshop See u there 😇

I’ll admit it: this morning I haunted the Handwork section and watched people look at my quilt. Some folks leaned close, read the title card, then laughed aloud. The biggest compliment — considering I also laughed aloud when the idea popped into my head. Thank you Quilt Con and sorry, strangers, for being a creep! Thank you @nataliequilts for the photos!

All of the movies.

In 2024 I planted a lot of seeds, and in 2025 I got to watch them grow. I think 2026 may be another year for planting, but we will see what the soil allows. (I wish the tarot card were true, but instead it’s aspirational. This year was hard but I am so grateful for what it gave. I didn’t make as many quilts as I did last year. I’m trying to change my relationship to “productivity.” Having a full time job again has altered my relationship to time. My Libra moon seeks balance. I’ll keep trying trying trying.) Thank you @cmdjazmine for my first market opportunity and @tastykeish for showing me the ropes; @nature_org for inviting me to teach a workshop in beautiful Montauk; @americanquiltstudygroup for inviting me to be one of your Seminar fellows and introducing me to a whole community of scholarship; @heidi.parkes for literally everything; @theinvisibledog and @aching.fiber for putting me in your gorgeous textile show; @textileartscenter for teaching me to weave; @davidhornungart for teaching me about color; @brooklyn_quilters_guild for being the first community that taught me what a quilt could be; @themqg for the acceptance; @minimalistmachinist for the shout out; @elaineyyyau for the perfect most inspiring exhibition; and so many many more for being part of this community of creativity. Thank you to everyone who supported me and my work this year, it means so much to me. 🖤