As a young girl in her native Hungary, Clara Haluska Fodor remembered growing up around beautifully embroidered textiles. After moving to the United States, as with many traditional textile artists, Fodor continued many of the styles, techniques and materials she grew up with to tell her stories. The master embroiderer used appliqué, embroidery and quilting techniques to make work which is both traditional and original.

Fodor immigrated to the United States in 1938 from her native Hungary, and her first sight of the United States was of the Statue of Liberty. She became a citizen during World War II.

After decades of quilting, Fodor turned to patriotic needlework themes to express love for her country. She first produced a wall hanging honoring Michigan, her residence at the time, and then began New Jersey, her husband's home state. By the time she moved to Tennessee in 1981, Clara Fodor was committed to completing all 50 states. In 1994, she finished Illinois, the last of the series.

With the completion of each wall hanging, Fodor felt more and more American. She donated the entire Stately Stitches collection to the Tennessee State Museum.

After finishing the fifty states, Fodor began a series honoring Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the United States, her three homes. She then completed wall hangings for Washington, D.C. and the U.S. territories. She worked on one celebrating Perry County, Tennessee, her last home. Clara Haluska Fodor battled arthritis and the weak eyesight all her life. She has passed her skills on to her granddaughter, Eleanor Fodor, who, at the age of eleven, has already made her first quilt. Fodor passed away on June 4, 2008.

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