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What (and Who?) Is the Future of Quilting?

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3 Makers Share Where Quilting May Head Next

Edited: May 17, 2022
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There is a lot out there on the history of quilting, but what about the future of quilting? Who are the future’s quilters?

We asked three quilters, Sherri Lynn Wood, Keyana Richardson and Mathew Boudreaux, to share where they think quilting is headed next to learn more about what might be on the horizon. Each quilter also shared photos of their own work, along with the names of a few quilters who they think embody where quilting is going.

While quilting’s past is rich, varied and important, so is its future. And, we as makers, get to help determine that trajectory. Read to learn more about what that could look like!

Sherri Lynn Wood portrait

Sherri Lynn Wood

sherrilynnwood.com
bravepatch.school

About Sherri:
Sherri has been improvising quilts as a creative life practice for 30 years. She is the author of The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, and the founder of the BravePatch.School, an online, conscious community for improv quilters.

A quilt comprised of many small striped blocks, turned both horizontally and vertically. Small strips of green, yellow, white, blue, black, red and white have been combined together to form a quilt of many colors, based on the colors in Sherri’s childhood home.

Sherri’s quilt, “Greenford Drive circa 1976,” 2022. Patchwork pieced from clothing, bed linens and quilting scraps, 63″ x 57″ (160cm x 144.8). Based on color memories of Sherri’s childhood home.

A quilt made of vertical rows of small triangles pieced together, some are pink, some are blue, some are white, some are plaids comprised of neutral colors.

Sherri’s quilt, “Dreaming Of Rosie Lee” by Sherri Lynn Wood, 2021. Repurposed wool, hand tied with wool.

…With the advent of online teaching, quilting students and teachers are coming together from across the globe with unprecedented opportunities to learn together.
Sherri Lynn Wood

In your opinion and expertise, what’s the future of quilting?

My slice of the quilting world, improv and flexible patterning, seems to be growing, and, in my opinion, is the dynamic edge of a movement towards liberation, diversity, more sustainability and a palpable desire for quilting as an intentional means of truth telling and healing. The pandemic has shifted our life patterns dramatically, and quilt makers are turning towards their craft as a joyful vehicle for learning how to navigate fluid relationships in more flexible ways. People are awake to the deeper connections between how they create and how they live their lives as agents of change in their communities.

We will be seeing more diverse colors, patterns and techniques–old/new, abstract/representational, minimal/maximal, fixed/flexible, raw/finished, acrylics/silks, English floral/fairytale princess–mashed up in a single quilt (#sewglitch) to tell personal and cultural stories that reflect the sometimes messy, awkward and uncomfortable conversations of life. For many, the satisfaction of making a quilt comes from speaking truth from the inside out and collaborating with what is, and less from executing an external fixed ideal of harmony with perfection and efficiency from pristine storebought quilters cotton and someone else’s templates. The systems of white privilege consumerism embedded in so-called “Traditional” quilting with a capital “T” (actually, it’s a white euro-centric tradition, one tradition with a lowercase “t” among many) are becoming less tenable, and less fulfilling for many quilters, although not for all.

Click to read the rest of Sherri’s answer

This new diversity and liberation in quilting has been building since the late 80s when black abstract piecers such as Rosie Lee Tompkins, Arbie Williams and company were introduced to white audiences, this liberation was furthered by the discovery of the Gee’s Bend community of quilters in the 2000s and sparked the Modern Quilt Guild. (Over time, it seems that the MQG has become more fixed and focused on Modern Traditional quilting, and hopefully will be wise enough to cultivate more diversity among their ranks and quilts.) Today as the Gee’s Bend quilters are gaining more direct access to audiences through social media, and other black makers’ voices are being heard, we are all benefiting from their bold expressions of freedom expressed in through their quilts.

Also, with the advent of online teaching, quilting students and teachers are coming together from across the globe with unprecedented opportunities to learn together. We are seeing a rise of handwork traditions from India, such as Siddi, Kwandi and Kantha. As well as other indigenous quilting and stitching traditions such as Boro from Japan, Pagoji from Korea.

AND we are seeing an unprecedented number of artists who are not quilters first, innovating within the quilting medium. Take a look at the artists in The New Bend, the current exhibition at Hauser & Wirth gallery in NYC. Even construction norms are being liberated. Maybe a quilt does not have to lie or hang flat. Maybe wrinkled and folded fabrics of all kinds will be incorporated into the surface of our quilts. Maybe quilters’ cotton will no longer fly solo in our quilted creations.

Precision quilting may no longer be the undisputed queen of the quilting world. Many quilters are waking up to the reality that perfection is a cruel taskmaster and are ready to make patterns in all of their human and delightfully unique, flawed ways. Many are already finding restoration and healing as they “defund” the internal voice of “the quilt police.” To quote Mary Margaret Pettway of Gee’s Bend, “You don’t have to go with mother’s patterns or somebody else’s patterns. You doin’ you at that point and nobody can do you better than you can do!”

Sherri’s Picks for Quilters of the Future

A quilt featuring a young Black woman looks at the camera and is wearing a white quilted dress with lace trim. She holds a stack of folded feed sacks. Behind her are pieces of flour feed sacks appliqued on the quilt, some with company logos, some with flower designs.
1 / 5
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Beverly Smith

https://www.instagram.com/quiltbev


Beverly’s quilt “Flour Power,” 2012, 40″x 40″ (101.6cm x 101.6).  Mixed media: graphite, paint, vintage flour sacks . Photographer: Dan Ormsby.

Photo of a quilt displayed from the ceiling in a gallery. A blue quilt with white all caps text is to the right and a quilt with a black background and rows of small patchwork squares in mostly dark fabric is behind and to the left. The main quilt has lowercase text in white fabric that reads “i am / i am still / i am not still / i am still not free.” Behind that text are small blocks made out of fabric that is black and various shades of blue with a few brightly colored small blocks peppered throughout. The border of the quilt is comprised of small brightly colored blocks worked together to form a border.
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Chawne Kimber

https://www.instagram.com/cauchycomplete


Chawne’s quilt, “still not.” A patchwork of denims and vintage clothing supports a poem commenting on the artist’s life in the 21st century. Photo credit: Thomas Kosa Photography / Lafayette College Art Gallery.

A hand-stitched quilt of many quilted blocks, each featuring items you might find in a room in a home, an orange-and-white bedspread, several strips close together in varying shades of grey to resemble a staticky television screen and more. Along with the blocks there are several 3-D elements, such as a white lampshade, part of which is sewn directly into the piece, and an actual small vintage blue suitcase.
3 / 5
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Coulter Fussell

coulterfussell.com
https://www.instagram.com/coultyalo


Coulter’s quilt “Home”, 2021, 102″ x 120″ (259.1 cm x 304.8). This hand-stitched quilt is a conceptual piece about transient living wherein the suitcase contains a quilt bearing elements of a room… a bedside lamp, a window with a view, velvet drapes, a static-y television screen, a chenille bedspread, a patterned bathroom wallpaper… all of which can be packed up in the suitcase and unfolded again at the next place you may have to go.

On the left side of the image, is a photo of a quilt against a white wall. The quilt has a thin yellow border and thick rows of fabric featuring an abstract design with partial petal like shapes in blue, green and purple that start out thick but taper off at the top. Some blocks are black and white, others light blue. The right side of the image is a close up photo of the quilt.
4 / 5
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Julian J. Jones

julianjamaaljones.org


Julian’s abstract quilt, “Untitled_Quilt (MARKINGS),” 2021, 50” x 63” (127 cm x 160) .

A quilt comprised of one long fringed vertically oriented panel that is mostly blue, with blue fringe, with a small strip of blue and hot pink checkerboard on the top right, and a hot pink smiley face, the bottom of which is dripping as if melting, with the words ACID DROP in hot pink all caps. Sewn next to that panel is a smaller square panel with long white, orange and neon green fringe and small blocks of neon orange, green, yellow and red with bits of dark blue interspersed with slightly larger blocks of fabric with rows of yellow flowers with green centers and green flowers with yellow centers on a white background. Portions of the smaller square panel have been enlarged and pixelated and are running down either side of the photo.
5 / 5
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Krista Hoefle

kristahoefle.com
https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/squish_factory_goods
https://www.instagram.com/krista_hoefle
https://www.instagram.com/squish.factory.goods


Krista’s quilt, “Power-UP: Discerning Between Walls and Boundaries (BOUNDARY), 2022. Hand dyed and vintage cotton and polyester, screen print on fabric, hand dyed wool, acrylic yarn.

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Keyana Richardson portrait

Keyana Richardson

collective-quilts.com

About Keyana:
I’m the creator behind Collective Quilts! I live in small city outside of Columbus, Ohio, with my blended family of four and our beagle mix pup. I hope to inspire quilters in their creative quilting journey!

A red-and-white quilt featuring alternating rows of large red and white diamonds outlined by two small rows of smaller red and white alternating diamonds is in front of the side of red train car that has two small square windows, one on the left, one of the right that says X525. The quilt is standing up right in front of the train car on a patch of gravel and grass.

Diamond Path Quilt by Collective Quilts, made by Keyana.

A 9-block quilt, featuring 3 rows of 3 blocks each. Blocks with diamonds with dark red centers, orange middles and cream are on the two outer blocks in the top and bottom row and on the middle block of the middle row. Blocks with cream X’s with peach centers and an orange background are on the middle block in the top and bottom row and on the outer blocks of the middle row. The quilt is standing next to a wooden fence in a patch of grass in front of a white and gray building.

Noughts and Crosses by Running Stitch Quilts, made by Keyana.

The future of quilting is YOU! It relies on you to continue to share your craft with others. The future of quilting is US!
Keyana Richardson

In your opinion and expertise, what’s the future of quilting?

What’s the future of quilting? I am going to speak on this subject in terms of modern quilting as seen through my lens.

Today’s quilters often come into quilting in unexpected ways. Historically, quilting methods and traditional patterns were usually passed down through familial generations; however, many modern quilters are learning their craft from friends, guilds, books, and are self-taught using social media outlets such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, to name a few.

Modern quilters are using traditional patterns such as Log Cabin and Irish Chain and giving them a fresh and new emphasis on rich, deep colors that are more saturated than older quilt styles. This is the future of quilting. It combines different fabric substrates and materials in ways that weren’t possible a few decades ago.

Click to read the rest of Keyana’s answer

The future of quilting is ME! It’s diverse, inclusive and supportive. It’s looking at big companies in the quilting industry and seeing a multitude of quilters and styles represented. It’s joy and connection through textile art. It’s accessible. It provides makers with the opportunity to master self-efficacy, all while creating something with their own hands. It’s going outside of the box. It’s exploring new ways to use color and shapes/lines. The future of quilting is YOU! It relies on you to continue to share your craft with others. The future of quilting is US!

Keyana’s Picks for Quilters of the Future

Photo of a quilt with a white background and columns of flowers, split in two halves with rounded petals, where one half is a dark color and the other half is a slightly lighter hue of that same color. The flowers are in alternating rows, where in one column the flowers are facing up and in the next they are facing down.
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Fran Gulick

cottonandjoy.com
https://instagram.com/cottonandjoy


This quilt is my Copihue Quilt (pronounced co-pee-way), inspired by my home country, Chile, and its national flower.

Michelle Collins and her two daughters are smiling and wrapped in a quilt comprised of small triangle blocks, some are blue and yellow floral, some are pink, some are white. The quilt has a thick lavender border. They are in a grassy field.
2 / 5
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Michelle Collins

meeshquilts.com
https://instagram.com/meeshquilts


Michelle and her two daughters wrapped up in the Collaboration Quilt from Color of Connection Quilt. They are the future of quilting, and we are learning about the importance of diversity for our present and our futures.

A quilt lies on a dark wooden plank floor. It has a white background and rows of bead shapes, round, oval, square, and more, in jewel tone hues, pink, red, purple and yellow.
3 / 5
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Nicole Daksiewicz

modernhandcraft.com
https://instagram.com/modernhandcraft


Nicole’s quilt Beads.

A quilt with small solid colorful slices of a starburst in reds, pinks, blues and yellows repeat next to smaller black triangles, leaving part of each star’s center in white, which is the same colors as the quilt’s background.
4 / 5
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Wendy Chow

the-weekendquilter.com
https://instagram.com/the.weekendquilter


Wendy Chow’s quilt Solar Slice. This pattern comes in both baby and throw sizes and is photographed here in the throw size. All fabrics are by Ruby Star Society from Kimberly Knight’s Smol collection.

A quilt is held up in the middle of a desert. A large brown and tan rock formation is behind the quilt, slightly to the left side of the photo. Small green shrubs dot the brownish-orange desert behind and around the quilt, and small yellow flowers are growing on green stems directly to the quilt’s front left and to the quilt’s right. The quilt has a white background and three large pairs of sunglasses, one on top of the other, making three rows. They all have blue lenses; the frame on the top pair is yellow with small white dots, the frame on the center pair is an orange, blue and brown leaf design and the frame of the bottom pair is pink with small red dots.
5 / 5
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Tori Brown

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MountainAirHandmade
https://www.instagram.com/mtnairhandmade


Tori’s Sunnies Quilt, photographed in the southern Utah desert.

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Mathew E Boudreaux portrait cropped

Mathew Boudreaux

misterdomestic.com
sew-u.com
https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/mister_domestic

About Mathew:
Mathew Boudreaux, AKA Mister Domestic, is on a mission to build an inclusive community that spreads love and joy through crafting. Starting in 2013, Mathew has leveraged his Portland State MBA and the power of social media to create an inclusive brand. Today Mathew is a fabric and pattern designer, sewing instructor and owner of the online sewing school SEW U. Mathew is also an inspirational speaker, consultant and global influencer with his TikTok, YouTube and Instagram accounts nearing 600,000 followers combined. (Mathew is also a 2022 Spoonflower Ambassador!)

Mathew stands looking at the camera. He is smiling and wearing a quilted hoodie. The hoodie is quilted from mostly blue fabric, some with stripes, some with a yellow and white flowers. A long vertical white quilted strip of fabric runs down most of the hoodie’s front. His right hand is in the hoodie’s right front pocket and his left hand is held up by his head waving. He is standing in front of a white bookcase full of books.

Quilt hoodie made by Wandy the Maker from Mathew’s Making Waves quilt.

Mathew is looking at the camera and smiling, holding up a quilt with a gray background and a large rainbow star design on it. The center of the quilt is purple, then extending outward, blue, teal, green, yellow, orange and red. He is wearing sunglasses and a gray shirt with vertical rainbow stripes that says “EQUALITY” in all caps.

Mathew’s Lone Star Quilt.

A$AP Rocky's Met Gala Quilt brought quilting into so many homes that the sky is really the limit. And there's no telling where it's going to go because we are living it now.
Mathew Boudreaux

In your opinion and expertise, what’s the future of quilting?

In my fantasy, the future of quilting is an inclusive utopia of diversity and acceptance. The largest barrier for most non-quilters, considering the medium, is the perception that it’s just for older conservative white women. And the Mister Domestic community is full of humans who’ve had bad experiences of feeling excluded or unwelcome while trying to join existing meetings or going into fabric stores. But the beautiful part of the internet is that it’s connected so many of us together that we’re now all realizing how many of us there are, which is amazing because so many of us are starting to create truly inclusive spaces for quilters who share the values of inclusion and acceptance.

Now that these quilting spaces and brands are becoming more popular and present, different types of humans are going to be drawn to the medium. And with new humans, comes new forms and styles of expression and new applications of quilting into other niches like apparel. A$AP Rocky’s Met Gala Quilt [a quilt originally made by Mary Ann Beshers and repurposed by Zak Foster] brought quilting into so many homes that the sky is really the limit. And there’s no telling where it’s going to go because we are living it now. I get messages all the time from folks that are now quilters who never thought it was for them until they met me.

Click to read the rest of Mathew’s answer

Imagine the number of humans who thought that when they saw A$AP Rocky. Right now, we see quilt clothes, quilt tops stretched on frames like canvas, mini quilts, art quilts, quilted toys, the list goes on. And with each application of the medium, a new group of humans become quilters. And from a business perspective, I see the more traditional quilter route being overtaken by these new iterations of quilt things. There will always be the traditional quilter, but everyone else needs to and will be more represented.

Mathew’s Picks for Quilters of the Future

A quilt of a woman holding two small children in her arms. They are all smiling and wearing blue, gray and turquoise clothes. The background is peach.
1 / 5
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Pride and Joy Quilting

prideandjoyquilting.com
https://www.instagram.com/prideandjoyquilting


Veruschka Zarate’s Pride & Joy quilt.

A quilt of large interlocking four-pronged stars, each a different color, ranging from light blue to dark rad on a white background. The quilt is hanging on a black metal fence outside of a lit-up carousel inside a pavilion.
2 / 5
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Brimfield Awakening

brimfieldawakening.com
https://www.instagram.com/brimfieldawakening


Brimfield Meadows Quilt, an English Paper Pieced quilt designed by Brimfield Awakening. This quilt was pieced by Nisha Bouri and Kim Martucci and quilted by Carrie Hanson. Photographer: Melanie Zacek.

A yellow, white, dark blue, royal blue and red quilt, with medium-sized blue blocks and yellow blocks in the bottom left and top right corners, and small contrasting strips of fabric radiating through several smaller blocks going across the quilt in partial repeating rows. The quilt is shown hung on a white wall with a yellow chair to the left, a small table with an espresso cup and several small plants below, and a large monstera plant in a white planter on a small black table to the right.
3 / 5
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Andrea Tsang Jackson

2022 Spoonflower Ambassador
3rdstoryworkshop.com
https://www.instagram.com/3rdstoryworkshop/
https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/3rdstoryworkshop


Andrea’s Awaken Quilt. Fabric: Spoonflower Petal Signature Cotton® Solids: Cobalt, Mustard, Poppy, Blush, Bluebell, White.

A close up of the Social Justice Society quilt called Sustainability. Twelve blocks are visible, each with either an orange or yellow border. The quilt’s background is comprised of small blocks in various shades of blue, ranging from light blue to dark blue. The quilt blocks cover a range of social justice issues, including racial profiling, incarceration, sexual harassment, colorism and more.
4 / 5
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Social Justice Sewing Academy

sjsacademy.org
https://www.instagram.com/sjsacademy


Close up of the quilt, Sustainability, pieced by members of East Bay Heritage Quilters, machine quilted by Nancy Williams, and photographed by C&T Publishing.

Kitty smiles and holds up her My 2020 Miles Quilt behind her as she walks down a gravel road with snow on either side of the road. A gray sky and bare brown trees, and one tall green fir tree, are behind her. Kitty is wearing black pants, a burgundy long-sleeved top and a mint green baseball cap. The quilt is comprised of small mostly green blocks (in both dark green and shades of lighter green), with a few white, red and orange blocks.
5 / 5
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Kitty Wilkin

nightquilter.com
https://www.instagram.com/nightquilter
https://www.facebook.com/nightquilter


Kitty Wilkin’s My 2020 Miles Quilt (#My2020MilesQuilt). This quilt documents running and hiking miles in 2020. Exploring the world of tying quilt-making together with intentional living has been a passion of Kitty’s, and this quilt drove home the power of the Quilt Your Life concept during an especially tumultuous year. By setting up positive feedback loops between quilting and living, you can do more of what you love, quilt without guilt, and document precious memories in the process. Photo by Garrett Wilkin.

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Betsy Greer

Betsy's favorite Spoonflower designs

Betsy is a writer and stitcher who joined the Brand Marketing team in July 2021. In her spare time, she talks to people about their choice to make things by hand and related lessons learned for her project Dear Textiles. She also aims to befriend all the dogs she meets and is forever looking for the perfect dress pattern with pockets.

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  • This is a really nice article! Quilting is from way way back and it’s future is brighter!!!!

    Interiorigin | March 18, 2022 at 8:43 am
    Reply
  • An interesting and enjoyable article! I loved the different perspectives and views for the future. My only moment of pause, is with Mathew and his axe to grind, about “conservative white women” and generalizing how we must all make him feel unwelcome and excluded at fabric stores and guilds. Is this a fallback topic when he has nothing of substance to contribute? I love the quilting community and our diverse lives and backgrounds are our future so I hope we can just move on and enjoy it without continuing to pick each other apart.

    KJN | March 18, 2022 at 1:59 am
    Reply
    • Thanks for your comment and I’m glad to hear you liked the post!

      As far as to someone’s “axe to grind,” I will say that I’ve been around a lot of craft spaces for years and not all of them have been welcoming to everyone… despite craft’s rich history of being practiced by everyone of all backgrounds and experiences.

      And I don’t see it as an “axe to grind” at all, but a valid point to highlight until everyone is welcome at craft stores and guilds.

      I love the diversity found in the craft world too, which is why it’s very much worth talking about, not just moving on from. The more people who can enjoy craft now, the richer the entire craft world is for it.

      Best,
      Betsy
      Spoonflower

      Betsy | March 18, 2022 at 10:15 am
      Reply
      • Thank you for your thoughtful response. I believe that everyone is welcome but maybe just not the center of attention. As far as I see, it is talked about constantly, but it looks like it’s just fine to continue browbeating women who just want to read an article or attend a class are but now keenly aware of the labels put upon us. Go figure.

        KJN | March 18, 2022 at 10:42 am
        Reply
        • I hear that, but I also think that there’s opportunity here to open to the idea that talking about it allows more spaces to be more open to more people.

          It can be a label, but it also can be an opportunity to realize that there’s more work to be done. It may seem like it’s talked about often, but then again, it wasn’t talked about by many, especially in group settings, for centuries.

          Best,
          Betsy
          Spoonflower

          Betsy | March 18, 2022 at 2:45 pm
          Reply
          • I realize it is not good to exclude people from the quilting craft or any other craft, but when it started, it and other needle crafts were the main ways that were acceptable for women to express themselves. Times have changed. Though thoughts on many things don’t change fast enough. Some women may feel that they are losing out on what was their territory. There is plenty of room for everyone. Quilting is an ever-expanding method of expression.

            Kathy Howard | March 28, 2022 at 10:50 am
          • Hi Kathy!

            I totally agree that there is room for everyone in craft! 🙂

            Also, I agree with you that quilting has given women a way to express themselves when perhaps situations to express yourself were hard to come by, but it’s also served that purpose for people of all orientations and identities too, precisely because the nature of sitting and making with others leads to connection and (quite often) good conversation!

            And, in case you’d like to learn more like I always do when it comes to craft, history shows that quilting has been done all over the world by all people of all backgrounds, not solely by women! (However, depending on where you look, this history isn’t always easily talked about, known, seen or celebrated! See trench art/quilting at war/crafting at sea for starters! When it comes to making things and selling them, that brings even more people in to the mix!)

            Best,
            Betsy
            Spoonflower

            Betsy | March 29, 2022 at 1:47 pm
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