Exhibitions Archives - Right Sides Together

QuiltCon Preview (+ Giveaway!)

If you’re reading this on Tuesday, I am very likely in a packing frenzy for QuiltCon at this very second. You probably are too… why are you reading this? GO PACK!

So here’s our QuiltCon preview: we’re very excited to be bringing you news and scenes from Austin beginning tomorrow, and we’ll be sharing our impressions along with some photos from the QuiltCon show on Thursday. In addition to the awesome classes and lectures, the convention offers a whole hall of exhibitors (retailers, publishers, manufacturers, etc.) so I’m excited to check out what’s new and notable in quilting and sewing swag. We’ll pass all that on to you on Thursday: if you’re not headed to QuiltCon, you can still be in the loop; if you’re with us in Austin, be sure to check out our faves before you hit the convention floor!

In addition, we are opening up a giveaway for a delightfully snarky RSTee of your choice from now until they kick us out of the Moda party on Thursday night (10:00 p.m. Central). You absolutely DO NOT have to be at QuiltCon to join in the fun. To enter, simply repost today’s Instagram photo, tag and follow us @rightsidestogether, and hashtag #RSTDoesQuiltCon. Anyone can do it. HOWEVER, if you are at QuiltCon, you can qualify for a bonus entry by finding one of us at the Moda party (Rhonda and I will both be wearing our RSTees), posting a selfie with us, and tagging it as above. Cool? Cool.

Hope to see y’all in Austin!

Quiltspotting: Japanese Quilts at the RMQM

Japanese Quilts | Right Sides Together — “Colors in My Old Town” by Yoshimi Umemoto

I am very fortunate to live in Boulder, Colorado. It’s a fabulous place—hippie paradise, really—but I had no idea when I moved here eighteen months ago just how much of a quilting and sewing hub it is. There are four modern quilting guilds (not even counting all the traditional, contemporary, and art guilds) within an hour’s drive, and the region is home to such industry folks as Craftsy, IndieSew, Fabricate, Fancy Tiger Crafts, Mama Said Sew, Interweave Press, and Bloc-Loc rulers. WHEW!

It’s no wonder, then, that we can also boast the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, which features quarterly exhibits displaying a wide range of quiltmaking techniques and themes. Their current exhibit, “Wishes Through Our Hands,” is a collection of quilts made by three prominent Japanese quilters and their students in response to the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami. But rather than focusing on the tragedy of the event, these quilters intended their work to inspire and reassure survivors; the exhibit, then, is a celebration of the traditions and natural beauty of Japan.

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Seeing Red – The Houston International Quilt Festival Ruby Jubilee Quilts

This year The Houston International Quilt Festival celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special exhibit “The Ruby Jubilee”. Rubies are a traditional anniversary gift celebrating forty years of marriage. The strong textile tradition of red and white quilts made this years exhibition a fitting and awe inspiring choice.

Red and white quilts became popular in the 1850s because of an expensive but colorfast and bleed proof fabric dyed with madder that came to be known as turkey red. The cloth was not of Turkish origin but was named so because of its origins in the East. The reds held their color and stood the test of time with wear and tear.

The popularity of red and white quilts, and the fact that they still retained their color over time, has made them highly collectable quilts. A prolific collector, Joanna Rose, shared her collection of 651 red and white quilts in an exhibition, “Infinite Variety,Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts” with the American Folk Art Museum in 2011. This exhibition served as the inspiration for the Ruby Jubilee.

Infinite Variety, March 2011 Photo credit - Gavin Ashworth / Courtesy of American Folk Art Museum. — Infinite Variety, March 2011
Photo credit – Gavin Ashworth / Courtesy of American Folk Art Museum.

The collection of quilts hung in Houston mirrored the same format at Rose’s collection. The Ruby Jubilee quilts span from 1974 to the present and encompass traditional quilts like the iconic Dear Jane all the way to more contemporary pieces with asymmetry and text. The juxtaposition of the two, side by side, made it feel like a wide community of quilters had come together and spoken the same language.

Lauren and I were lucky enough to get to see the exhibition while we were at Quilt Market, which always happens the weekend before festival. Market is a hustle and bustle of work and activity. It is exciting, overwhelming, exhilarating, and stressful all at the same time. Walking through the Market floor is a sensory overload and then you can just step over to the exhibition and it is almost as if time stands still. Voices are hushed. The frantic pace of running from booth to booth, appointment to appointment, is replaced by a slower steps to take in one of the most significant quilt exhibitions in the world.

It is really hard for me to see such a dramatic display and it not have an impact on my own work. The Infinite Variety exhibition spawned an interest in red and white quilts to the point that it inspired entire fabric lines devoted to reproduction turkey red prints. Some of those lines are still being produced. It will be interesting to see what effect this exhibition has on modern quilting.

So, now to dig out some reds in my stash.