Veronica Mays creates work from the heart

Whether making quilts or writing poems, Mays creates pieces that are vibrant, full of story, and inspired by her African American heritage

Photos by Dave Hansen

Stepping into Veronica “Conaky” Mays’ home studio is to enter a vibrant world rich in texture, where bright teal walls are a backdrop to a variety of quilting projects. It might look messy to some, but it’s more of an organized chaos kind of space, where maximalism rules, sewing machines are many, and a multitude of projects are underway.

“I’m not afraid of color, as you can see,” says Mays, smiling, “I love vibrant colors.

”For Mays, a self-described night owl who is in her studio daily from 8 p.m. to midnight, quilting began as a hobby and evolved into a full-time creative pursuit.

It was while living in Fairbanks, Alaska in 2004 that she first dabbled with quilting. There with her family and earning a master’s degree in teaching, she took a quilting course at JoAnn’s Fabrics. However, it wasn’t until 2015 that she began quilting in earnest.

Now, twenty years later, she is a prolific quilter, one who has shown her work all over the state and the country. Local exhibitions have included a recent installation at Sunlight Studios in Portsmouth and her annual February display at Newport Public Library, now in it’s 8th installment.

“I didn’t know the degree — how exponentially it would grow,” she says of how quilting evolved from a hobby to a full-time creative endeavor.

In 2020, she and her husband, Dereke, converted the garage of their Portsmouth home into a studio space. Mays, who grew up in Newport (her mother is Pauline Perkins-Moye), settled in Portsmouth several years ago after returning to Aquidneck Island.

“There’s more fabric than I’ll ever need— I don’t stop buying it,” she says, unapologetically, explaining that visiting fabric shops never gets old. “When I travel, I Google ‘fabric stores near me.’”

Mays creates art quilts, many of which are also “story quilts.” Recent works have taken the form of portraits of beloved family members or iconic Black figures like writer Toni Morrison and musician Bootsy Collins. Her favorite quilt is a portrait of her three daughters, Brianna, Alicia, and Sara, says Mays.

Her quilts often begin with a sketch and, from there, Mays builds her layers of fabrics. Many of her works are inspired by and integrate African patterns. Another favorite element is text fabric formed of words and writing. Some design ideas stem from quilting shows and their themes, including “calls for artists and what inspiration comes up from the calls,” says Mays. She belongs to several quilting guilds, among them Quilters by the Sea, Rhode Island Threads, and the National African American Quilt Guild.

“I don’t strive for perfection — I strive for something that’s pleasing,” she says of her work.

Altogether, there are eight sewing machines in her studio, including one big quilting machine called the HQ Simply Sixteen, which has a five-foot frame.

During the pandemic, she began making jackets with distinctive patterns. Several hang on a rack in her studio, including one formed of images of newsprint. “Those are my news paper articles from The Daily News,” she says, referring to the “Around the Block” column she once penned for the paper. On the back of the jacket are the words “Knowledge is Power.” On the inside, a heart has been cut from fabric and sewn into place, bearing the inscription: “‘This Writer’s Journey,’ Veronica Mays, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, December 2020.”

”Similar labels are sewn to the underside of each of her wall quilts, often including a line from Scripture. They act as signatures, which Mays describes as “provenance.” Her creative quilting isn’t limited to wall art and clothing. Recently, while giving a tour of her studio, she sported a pair of quilted sneakers she had made. When she needs a “pallet cleansing project” between or during other projects, Mays makes quilted postcards. “I bet I’ve made about1,000 of those by now,” she estimates.

“How do I decide what to finish —that’s the question,” she says, laughing.

The quilter is also a poet. Last year Mays published her first poetry collection, “Heart Wide Open,” which integrates poems with images of her quilts. The cover is an image of her favorite quilt: her daughters’ hands forming a trio of hearts.

A significant portion of that collection was inspired by a trip last March to Ghana, where she traveled on a textile tour led by Sew Creative Lounge. In her book, she writes: “The tour was amazing, uplifting, enriching, empowering, cleansing — a deep, meaningful blessing. On the night we arrived, I woke up as a result of jet lag, and poetry literally began pouring out of me.”

Her life-changing African adventure proved productive. Mays wrote eight poems during the nine days she was there. By comparison, she had written 10 poems during the previous two months.

The poems in her Ghana Series range from “In Africa” (“I am in Africa / and Africa is in me”) to “Heart Wide Open” (“Heart wide open / About to burst / Ghana’s love option / Loved on me first”) to “Feet Back Home” (“When I plant my feet in the African soil, / I feel taller, I feel richer, I am more / Hailing from grands who were Royal / I have returned to her shore, to her shore / The warmth heals my souls, / I know you understand!”).

When not working on quilts in her studio or writing poetry, Mays spends part of every Saturday volunteering in the soup kitchen at Community Baptist Church on Dr. Marcus F. Wheatland Boulevard in Newport. She also serves as co-chair of the annual Rev. Robert L. Williams National Black History Month Assembly at Rogers High School.

She plans to take a bit of a break this spring and join the passengers aboard a quilting cruise.

Mays recently started dabbling with TikTok, where she’s posting process videos of her quilt making. To follow along and see more of her work, find Mays on social media @conaky.quilter or visit her website conakysquilts.com.