Steamboat Springs, CO - The Platform Gallery at the Depot Art Center is getting cozy this month with two quilts created by NozCaboose artist-in-residence, Laura Tamucci. Laura spent the months of July and August holed up in the caboose working on her quilts – with a lot of visitors in between.

“A lot of kids visited,” she says. “It was so fun. I really felt like I was out in the community when I was in there. I talked to visitors and locals and so many kids who stopped by.”

Laura had blank fabric squares available for her visitors and she asked them to create a square that would eventually be part of a community quilt, which now adorns the wall in the Platform Gallery.

“That quilt is really colorful and fun and feels very childlike,” Laura explains. With 42 squares, nearly all of them were created by children in the community.

The second quilt that Laura worked on while in the caboose is called the Rainbow Quilt – sewed in a pattern of sawtooth stars from scraps that Laura had saved from other projects; years worth of her favorite fabrics, she says.

An art teacher at the Montessori School, Laura is inspired by children, colors and community. $
“A lot of my artmaking centers around kid’s art,” she explains, “so even the Rainbow Quilt is really colorful and fun and feels almost childlike. Rainbow is definitely the influence of kid’s art and teaching.”

Laura launched her brand, Gracie Stitches, in 2017 after her daughter was born. She sews and sells baby blankets, quilts, napkins and more. Visit www.graciestitches.com or follow her on Instagram @gracie_stitches. And, stop by the Platform Gallery during the month of October to see the colorful quilts or find a square in the community quilt.