One of her friends, Dee Walker, stepped in to help Johnson create embroidered labels for each quilt square to show the name of the sport. My friends have been excited to know that I have created a part of history for Birmingham, AL.’’ “My energies were ready to start flowing. “My family gave me time every evening to get my nap and then get up at 7 o’clock and work on it,’’ she said. When she went back to work, she successfully captured the movement of the sport. But when she found herself stuck, she simply closed her eyes and thought about how they moved during their sport. Some figures, such as the sumo wrestlers and flag football, posed a challenge for her to create because she wanted to get the image just right. She also likes the wheelchair rugby square.
Her favorite square is the breakdancing one because she recalls how her children used to breakdance in the backyard when they were younger. “I felt good from the beginning to the end while working on it. “The quilt represents Birmingham, to me,’’ said Johnson, 69. It also features the colors of the World Games. At the top of the quilt is a banner filled with her hand-stitched images of popular Birmingham landmarks including Sloss Furnaces, Citizens Bank founded by A.G. She drew each image in her composition tablet, made the patterns, ironed the patterns onto the quilt and hand stitched around each figure so they would stay in place.
Johnson’s quilt features 40 different sports of the World Games. The gallery focuses on race in sports and includes historic pieces such as the 1996 Olympic torch from Atlanta, cereal boxes with African-American Olympians on them, noteworthy memorabilia from Muhammad Ali, Hank Arron, etc. In early July, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute included her quilt in its “Race to Freedom’’ exhibit, which will close on July 16. The Birmingham native started on the quilt in April 2022 and finished it at the end of June. So, she did what she does best: She made a quilt. When news started to build about the World Games coming to Birmingham, Theresa McGhee Johnson wondered how she could showcase her excitement for others to see.
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