Travel

Did you know that the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles in San Jose, California has online exhibits? They call them 24/7 Exhibitions and they are available online 24/7 so you can visit them on your time. One they are currently featuring is called Deeds Not Words: Celebrating 100 Years of Women's Suffrage. Click through to find out more about this fascinating new quilt exhibit.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a brand new exhibition on display now through September 2, 2024 entitled Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. Watch and discover this amazing and sensory-awakening installation in this video by joining "Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, on a tour of the exhibition."

Susan Carlson, past guest of The Quilt Show, is receiving the honor of having an exhibit of her work on display at The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY. The exhibit, Susan Carlson: Specimens, will take a look at smaller quilts made earlier in her career that showcase the specimens of the title, such as insects, fish, and other creatures.

From The Festival of Quilts: "We're delighted to present The Quilt Collection exhibition from The Quilters' Guild of The British Isles - Patchwork: Pattern and Print: 1780-1840.This year's exhibition by The Quilt Collection showcases a stunning array of late 18th and early 19th-century patchworks. Featuring fabrics dating back to the 1780s, it's a unique opportunity to view historically significant pieces, some never before publicly displayed."​

Once in a while, our TQS Photographer and Newsletter editor steps in front of the camera, but it has to be a very rare occasion. In this instance, Mary Kay Davis got to see her quilt live and in person at the National Quilt Museum as part of the New Quilts from an Old Favorite: Roaring Twenties exhibit. Click through to see Mary's quilt quilt and learn about it and the exhibit.

From The Festival of Quilts: "For over fifty years, Lynne Edwards MBE has been making quilts, and now that retirement looms, it’s time to showcase that enormous body of work and find new homes for them all in her 'Swan Song' exhibition at The Festival of Quilts 2024. It will also be a great opportunity for Lynne to bid a public farewell and thank the hundreds of amazing people she has met, taught, and laughed with over the years​."

From the Smithsonian American Art Museum: "Explore the creative practice of Amish quilters in the United States. Pattern and Paradox: The Quilts of Amish Women looks beyond quilting as a utilitarian practice. It reveals historical quilting among the Amish as an aesthetic endeavor that walked a line between cultural and individual expression. The quilts paradoxically twin the plain with the spectacular, tradition with innovation, and a dismissal of personal pride with objects often seen as extraordinary artworks."

From the International Quilt Museum (IQM): "Have you seen “A New Deal for Quilts” yet? Set aside some time to join us before the exhibition closes on April 20! With quilts from the IQM collection as well as historical photos and documentary sources, this exhibition tells the stories of quiltmakers in the United States and how they coped with the hard times of the Great Depression. It also explores how quiltmaking was used by government agencies as an emblem of American perseverance and frugality, and to promote new vocational and homemaking skills for women."

Now through July 30, 2024, the National Quilt Museum is featuring Karen Nyberg's work as part of her exhibition, The Stars Are Aligned, which celebrates her time as an astronaut, living in space, her family, and her interest in Earth conservation. The exhibition also features a set of Astronomical Quilts that were commissioned in 2013 by NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration to honor Karen's mission on the International Space Station.

From The National Gallery of Art: "This transformative exhibition explores how abstract art and woven textiles have intertwined over the past hundred years. In the 20th century, textiles have often been considered lesser—as applied art, women’s work, or domestic craft. Woven Histories challenges the hierarchies that often separate textiles from fine arts. Putting into dialogue some 160 works by more than 50 creators from across generations and continents, the exhibition explores the contributions of weaving and related techniques to abstraction, modernism’s preeminent art form."

From the Daughters of the American Revolution National Headquarters: "This groundbreaking exhibit combines sewn items from all textile sections of the DAR Museum’s collection, including garments, quilts, and embroideries. Textiles from the 18th century to today are juxtaposed to show how women of diverse backgrounds have used their needles to express emotions and identity and as a force for benevolence and justice. Trust us, you won’t want to miss it!"

From Blue Box Auction: "Join us as we unveil the Kaye England Quilt Collection in our Featured Quilt Auction on March 9, 2024 at 12:00pm EST. This exclusive event presents a remarkable selection of 20 antique quilts from Kaye’s collection, and 20 additional quilts created by Kaye in honor of some of the most important women in history including: First Ladies Washington, Taft and Coolidge, and others including Amelia Earhart, Helen Keller and Lucille Ball. The collection also includes photos and autographs of some of the featured women in the collection."

International batik artists Jonathan and Beth Evans are soon to be featured on The Quilt Show. Their batik paintings are world-class and are wonderful expressions of what is possible with wax resist and painting with dyes. The Quilt Show is also helping to promote the International Year of Batik (2024-25), and has the scoop on several Batik shows you might be interested in seeing.

Last week we featured an exhibit of Gee's Bend quilts that were on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the same gallery was a collection of furniture covered with digitally reproduced designs of those quilts. Learn about this exclusive furniture collection celebrating the work of Mary Lee Bendolph, Delia Bennett, Annie E. Pettway, Loretta Petway, and Magdalene Wilson of Gee's Bend.

The Quilt Show has a special exhibit that will be on display soon at AQS QuiltWeek – Branson from March 13–16, 2024. The "Behind the Seams" Exhibit, curated by TQS's very own Kristin Goedert and Lilo Bowman, was on display last year at Road to California 2023 and features quilts from the past 17 years of the show to create an engaging and interactive collection that supports the quilting community and shares knowledge to help quilters grow their skills. Every quilt in this collection represents the work of a TQS featured artist's technique giving you a glimpse into their process. 

The display in Branson is a bit different from the last year's exhibit, but you can click through to learn how the exhibit works from Kristin's Road to California video.

The Quilt Show recently visited Philadelphia and ran across this exhibit featuring the quilts of Gee's Bend at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (there through July 7, 2024) that we wanted to share with you. Of the quilts on display, the museum said, "The 13 quilts on view were acquired in 2017 through the Souls Grown Deep Foundation and were selected to tell the history of quilt-making in Gee's Bend (Alabama) from the mid-1920s to 2005. The significance of these quilts to their makers is expressed in the quilters' own words gathered from contemporary interviews."

Embark on a unique and enriching photography tour of Ireland, curated in collaboration with the multi-talented Ricky Tims, musician, contemporary quiltmaker, and photography mentor. This immersive journey combines the beauty of Ireland’s landscapes with the artistry of photography, offering participants the chance to capture the true essence of both Northern and Southern Ireland.

From Ricky: "I'm excited that my quilt One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish will be in the popular biennial men's quilt exhibit at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado. If you are in Colorado soon, be sure to check out the exhibit. I'll be at the reception January 19 - maybe see you there!!!"

World-class Batik artists Jonathan Evans, Chairman of the Batik Guild, and his wife Beth welcome you to celebrate the International Year of Batik. What is the Year of Batik you may ask? "It will be a year to promote, publish and legitimize the ancient art of Batik. Exhibitions are planned all over the world—in Italy, Chile, the UK and in the USA where the very first all-American batik show will be staged in Colorado." Find out more about this exciting celebration by clicking through, and to view some of Jonathan and Beth's beautiful Batik art.