Judith Tomlinson Trager looked at quilting with a fresh pair of eyes at age six. She describes with joy learning how to quilt from her mother and her six aunts during a summer vacation in Brigham City and nearby Mantua. There would be similar vacations through the years. Trager was born and raised in California. Her mother, Mary Elfreda Nelson Tomlinson, grew up in Mantua.

Because of early family influences and her innovative spirit, Trager has become a world-class art quilter with 13 solo exhibitions since 1990. She has also curated 14 quilt shows in the past 20 years with five touring nationally.

Approximately 15 quilts by the artist, a Longmont, Colorado, resident, are included in the Brigham City Museum-Gallery’s Quilt Festival set for June 10 through August 1. Trager is the museum’s Featured Art Quilter.

The festival is also presenting pieces by Marta Amundson, Riverton, Wyoming; Kazuko Covington, Irvine, California; Marilyn Fashbaugh, Clinton; Jinny Lee Snow, Salt Lake City; and other quilters throughout Northern Utah. Amundson, Covington, Fashbaugh and Snow have all been Featured Art Quilters at the museum.

Trager’s quilts are remarkable for their elegance of composition and color, notably “Summer Squash Garden.” She has worked a richness and variation of green, orange and yellow colors into this piece.

“We sometimes miss the most beautiful parts of our gardens - the flowers of the lowly zucchini, ,” the artist said. “This quilt was chosen to travel with the Hands All Around exhibit of the International Quilt Festival. It was featured on the cover of its magazine and in its show brochures.”

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