Monday 5 November 2012

Museum Quilts and Patchwork

Last month Vivien and I re-visited the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead.   I can't believe it has been over two years since we were there, but apparently so.  This post is the evidence.  The Thursday craft ladies were talking about this textile exhibit so I knew it would be interesting.  That's not even the beginning of it.  There was a sign saying not to touch anything; if one wanted to see the back of a piece, to ask the staff for help.  I practically had to fold my arms to stay out of trouble, these exhibits were so lush.

Quilts

Quilting and patchwork often go together, but in this part of the world, quilting is very much appreciated on its own.  This exhibit honoured a lady named Amy Emms.  This interview about her mother's and her own quilting is brilliant.

Amy Emms made this quilt at the age of 73!



I put up my hand to show the scale of the details...I didn't touch!

Reading Pippa Moss's blog it appears that quilting in the US is now mainly done by machine where as Amy Emm's quilts were done by hand. 

Paddy Killer (interesting name, eh?) on the other hand, does her textile art largely by machine.


"Creation Counterpane" by Paddy Killer





I simply couldn't believe was I was seeing.

Patchwork

There were several lovely patchwork quilts and I gathered they were made by a group of ladies who all learned together and continued to make quilts together, which sounds quite fun.



The patchwork itself is amazing, but with all that quilting in addition, it's just incredible.

My favourite patchwork, though, was the Victorian 9-patch, using all sorts of lush velvets and silks.




And this was just a small part of all the wonders we got to see!

2 comments:

Beryl said...

Those exhibits look wonderful. Just this morning in the pool at the Y, the ladies who had gone to Houston for the International Quilt Expo, kept trying to describe the amazing quilts they had seen. So I was really in the mood for pictures like these. (Proud of you for not touching - it's would have been a problem for me, too!)

Shelley said...

Oh, an International Quilt Expo sounds like heaven to me! I was thinking I needed to find the title of a certain book about patchwork to add to my wishlist now that Christmas is coming up. Yes, 'someone' who normally follows rules had her hands on some of those exhibits, but I'm not naming names...