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New Mexico State Fair ribbon quilt now on display in Smithsonian

September 7, 2026 #art, #artists, #craft, #fabric, #new mexico, #quilt, #quilting, #quilts, #Smithsonian, #state fair, #textiles, #women artists, #women in art history

Ribbons are a big deal. Carol Johnson has won hundreds and hundreds of them over the past 43 years.

“My father was an alcoholic and I heard all the time, ‘Can’t you do anything right? What’s the matter with you? Can’t you do anything right?’, so with the ribbons, I was like, ‘Oh, I can do something right.’,” Johnson said.

Johnson stitched 609 of her ribbons together into a quilt. The quilt won her yet another blue ribbon in 2023 – and a spot in the Smithsonian Museum’s Renwick Gallery. {read}