Texas threads run through exhibit
Lone Star touches and imagery mark the 25 entries on display in one of more than 50 of event’s shows
Even if you didn’t grow up in Texas you’ll recognize the significance of the sweet face of a calf staring at you from the pristine white quilted background of Suzan Engler’s “Raised on Bluebonnets” quilt.
Engler combines the importance of the ranching industry with the beauty of the state’s favorite spring wildflower for her entry in the Made in Texas exhibit that will be part of the 2018 International Quilt Festival. The event is expected to draw 55,000 people to the George R. Brown Convention Center Thursday to Nov. 11.
The 25 quilts in Made in Texas are curated from about 100 that were in a larger exhibit at the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange. Museum curator Sandra Sider said she wanted the smaller group that will be on display at the quilt festival in Houston to represent not only topics relevant to the state but to include quilters from big cities and rural areas, too.
So you’ll see an agave plant (“Agave” by Susie M. Monday of Pipe Creek), a bull (“El Toro” by Melanie Marr of Houston) and iconic images including cowboy hats, cotton and the Alamo (“Texas Our Texas,” by Gloria J. Brister of Galveston). You’ll see traditional quilts with intricate piecework and more abstract art quilts with hand-dyed fabric and unusual techniques.
Made in Texas is just one of 51 exhibits that include 1,764 quilts of all shapes and sizes. The quilt festival takes up all three floors of the convention center, with half of the hall space devoted to quilt displays and half to vendor booths where you can find quilt patterns, fabric, sewing machine and just about anything else related to the quilting industry. Anyone interested in learning to quilt or improving their skills might want to sign up for some of the more than 500 classes happening there next week.
Longtime fans of quilting might want to check out Kaffe Fassett’s 20-year retrospective, which reaches back to his original quilts and includes photographs of antiques that inspired them.
Susanne Miller Jones curated an exhibit of 42 quilts that celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The quilts in the exhibit touch on themes that make international headlines even today: racial and ethnic tolerance, women’s rights, refugees and immigration, fair labor practices and even environmental issues.
Another exhibit, Power of Women, was created by professional quilters Jamie Fingal of Orange, Calif., and Leslie Jenison of San Antonio.
Both women are quilters and quilt-fabric designers who have curated festival exhibits before. They may be best known for their “Dinner at Eight” quilt show series that have made exhibit appearances in one form or another for 10 years. This year, though, they’re also organizing the Power of Women collection that focuses on women’s achievements throughout history.
The idea started brewing long before the Me Too movement made headlines, but the synchronicity doesn’t escape them.
“When we envisioned this two years ago, we already knew what we were going to do,” Fingal said, noting that the actual call for entries was issued in April 2018, so topics in the news could have been on the minds of their quilters. “We wanted to make a common exhibit that was empowering to women … it will be so empowering to see all of the quilts lined up together.”
Quilts in the Power of Women exhibit fit three themes, each with a unique size: Garden of Life, in 36-by-36-inch designs; Sacred Feminine, made 2 feet wide and 8 feet long; and Women’s Circle, made 2 feet wide and 6 feet long.
The quilts will be displayed in vertical layers — Jenison described it as looking like a layer cake — and hung in a way that you can walk around to see front and back.
“We wanted to focus on women in a broad sweeping statement because for so many women in history, light just hasn’t gotten shown on them as we feel it should,” Jenison said.
One quilt that stands out to Jenison is an ethereal art-cloth quilt by Lyric Kinard — titled “Mother” — showing a tree that morphs into a woman. “Stitched Together,” by Victoria Findlay Wolfe, features a traditional stitched background to honor her grandmother, who taught her to quilt, with an artful self-portrait on top.
“She’s saying, ‘Here I am, but with me is my grandmother who made these traditional quilts,’ ” Jenison said. “There are a lot of ways to look at these quilts. It’s important to say that viewers may not completely understand what the maker was thinking about … There’s a certain amount of mystery that happens when any person looks at any piece of art.”