A Review

In the previous post, I shared about our quilt group's field trip to La Conner's Quilt Museum.  Today, I'd like to share my thoughts about the exhibit itself.

If you haven't guessed, the exhibit's focus is on men and their contribution to the quilting world.

Between these fifteen men, forty-one pieces were on display.   There was a nice variety of design, technique and material used.   The setting was lovely, but not the best for some of the works.   As is often the case, taking pictures was not allowed, so I'm using the brochure to give you little hints of what we saw.

Our group had quite the discussion over The Man in the Window!  In person, the image was very hard to decipher and I think some were never quite able to see the man.   But the impression of rain running down the window was beautifully captured with Atkins' bead work.
The Ravens of Angel's Crest was wonderful and one of my favorites in the entire exhibit.

Another favorite was David Taylor's Marmalade's First Snow.   Of course, the subject matter is what first caught my attention but on closer inspection, the workmanship was impressive, with hand applique and heavy quilting.

Let's talk about closer inspection versus viewing from a distance.  

Lefelhocz's work begs you to do both.  The overall image in Money for Nothing was obvious from a distance, but up close the quilt became a mystery.  I wanted to know WHY he used sugar packets, nylon window screening, dental floss, and plastic flies!  

Ms. Ing Links was hanging in a hallway so it wasn't possible to view it from a distance.  In fact, I didn't see the image until I looked at this brochure.  But up close I was able to see that it was covered in hand-painted bicycle chain links!  

Nakano's Flow of the Seasons also draws one in.  From a distance you see a beautiful wash of colors.  Up close you see a gazillion (I don't think I'm exaggerating) 3/4 inch hexagons, many of them "fussy cut," hand pieced, hand quilted.  And this is not a small quilt!   Just . . .  wow!

Luke Haynes' quilts were my inspiration for my Chuck Norris quilt.  I was very interested in seeing them in person since I had only seen them online previously.  My personal feeling is that to really appreciate them they should be viewed from a greater distance than was possible in this venue. That said, it was interesting to see the techniques up close.  I'm still amazed by what our minds can do with what our eyes see.  (Did that make any sense?)  

In addition to the Material Men exhibit, there are two other exhibits in place.  The Best of the Festival and Color Explosion! Challenge are both running through December 30th.   I highly recommend a visit.  Check out their website for more information on these and future exhibits.