Quilt Pilgrimage

Two quilters who have just met will be strangers only until their mutual passion for quilting is revealed. Then they can talk for hours like the best of friends.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jenniferch519921.html

Two quilters who have just met will be strangers only until their mutual passion for quilting is revealed. Then they can talk for hours like the best of friends.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jennifer_chiaverini.html

Fabric is everything. 

Often I tell my pattern makers, "Just listen to the material. 

What is it going to say? 

Just wait. 

Probably the material will tell you something.

~ Yohji Yamamoto

DISCLAIMER: I love quilts. I love traditional quilts. And I love art quilts. If you are not a quilt fan, you may want to stop right here. If you are interested in quilts or merely curious, read on.


Quilt National

Held every other year at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, Quilt National is a celebration of innovation in quilting. The founders were fiber artists creating "quilts" that did not fit into the restrictive definitions of the times. They began Quilt National in 1979.*

I wandered into the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas this weekend and ran head first into the traveling exhibit of quilts from the 2015 Quilt National. The first work I observed grabbed me and is still in my head as I type this.

Disruption, a five-panel work by Deidre Adams of Littleton, Colorado,** is like nothing I have ever seen...paper, cotton, and paint - stitched, layered, torn, applied, and manipulated to create a wonder. I share small details below so you will understand. These are not your granny's patchwork quilts.

Detail from Disruption by Deidre Adams

The bottom edges of three panels from Disruption.

Julie Weller, Events and Outreach Manager at Dairy Barn Arts Center, explained that the biennial exhibit runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day (so there is plenty of time to enjoy the exhibit and, a positive point for me, fewer crowds). She also shared the story of the Dairy Barn Arts Center - how the barn was saved at the last minute by the efforts of a coalition of citizens and artists who desired to turn it into a non-profit arts center. What vision!

The works from 2015 were varied and fascinating. Some pull at your heart while others appeal to the eye. Some speak to environmental and political concerns. All push the boundaries of materials and imagination.

I went back to the exhibit again and again meeting one of the artists, Janet Windsor, who shared her work, Crumbling, and her inspiration (a porcelain work by a ceramic artist). Ms. Windsor's work was not in the traveling exhibit, but we looked at a photo in the book chronicling the exhibition.  Let me describe it to you. Variegated curving veins of color run from the top of the rectangular piece (55"x25") to the bottom where they dissolve into a tumble of overlapping colorful pebbles. Visually compelling, it also tweaks the observer. How did she do that?

But no matter how wonderful a photograph,*** nothing is quite like seeing a work in person. The details of stitching and fabric and texture are often lost. I need to go and see for myself.

A trip to Athens is in order. I want to see what's next.

Maybe you will join me next summer. Maybe not. But go to the website. Look at the work. Consider the evolution in quilting represented by the award winning works archived there.

I will end this with a few more examples of the works that were part of  Quilt National 2015.

From the Number One Train by Judith Plotner  [Can't you see the movement, the buildings and the graffiti?]

Leaf Skeleton by Martha Cole

Grandma Maude by Mary Arnold

Woodstock by Cindi Goodwin

Head 7 by Diane Siebels

Detail from Color Form 71 by Gail Baar

'Murica by Kristin La Flamme

Detail from 'Murica  [The fabric choices!]

Clams by Velda Newman. [These clams were enormous and stunning - a shell collector's delight.]

Detail of Colourscape I by Inge Hueber

NOTES:

*http://dairybarn.org/quilt-national/5759-2/

**For more please visit the artists' websites:
    Deidre Adams:  http://deidreadams.com/
    Judith Plotner: www.judithplotner.com
    Martha Cole: www.marthacole.ca/artist/artist.html
    Mary Arnold:  http://maryarnoldfiberartist.blogspot.com/p/rock-quilts_20.html
    Cindi Goodwin: Couldn't find her website, but this is a great article -
    http://thecabin.net/stories/060705/sty_0607050044.shtml#.WCDpr9zbSgQ
    Diane Siebels: https://dianesiebelsfiberart.com/
    Gail Baar: http://www.gail.baar.us/
    Kristin La Flamme: http://kristinlaflamme.com/
    Velda Newman: http://www.veldanewman.com/
    Inge Hueber: http://ingehueber.de/ [Yes, I hear your colors singing!]
    Janet Windsor: http://www.janetwindsor.com/new-page/

*** I purchased Quilt National 2015, The best of Contemporary Quilts. I needed to see them all.