Ludy Strauss, Quilt Papers

Born Luann Miller in Herrin, Illinois, on December 6, 1929, but better known as Ludy Strauss. An early proponent for quilts as artwork on the West Coast, her antique quilts were displayed and sold at her Montana Avenue shop in Santa Monica throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Earlier, her collections had been exhibited in museums throughout the country. Strauss attended MacMurray College for Women at Southern Illinois, then worked as a United Airlines stewardess. While living in San Francisco she met and later married writer documentary film maker Theodore Strauss.

Strauss worked with ten artists to create quilts based on their own artwork. The artists include Peter Alexander, Charles Arnoldi, Tony Berland, Ron Cooper, Guy Dill, Laddie John Dill, Claire Falkenstein, Charles Garabedian, Craig Kauffman, and Ken Price. Information about the project, including representative images, can be found in the exhibition catalog Artist’s Quilts: Quilts by ten contemporary artists in collaboration with Ludy Strauss. Published in association with Harold I. Huttas, 1980-1981.