I seriously thought it was a fairly new phenomena spurred on by the fantastic ranges of fabrics out there these days, followed up by some pretty clever people with tricky mirrors ... but nope!
I was in Melbourne recently and lucked upon an exhibition called "Making The Australian Quilt 1800-1950". Brown quilts are not my thing, but I was curious to see how they were constructed all those years ago. I mean, how did they manage without on-line quilt shops or thread cutters on their sewing machines? The answer? Much better than me with all my mod cons!
Seriously, these people had some skills ... and ... an eye for fussy cutting.
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| Look! Fussy cutting!! Roebuck Chintz quilt #1 circa 1860 |
The snap shot above is from a quilt made around 1860 by the Roebuck sisters who came as free settlers (ie not convicts) to Australia. This quilt was made en route to Australia ... on a boat ... on the not so flat ocean.
Just goes to show ... what is old is new again.
Speaking of which. Low volume ... surely that's a new, modern thing right?
The following quilts would like to disagree ...
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| Elizabeth Lindsay's "Crazy Quilt" made in 1898 from fabric samples |
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| close up ... the red stitching is genius! |
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| Mary Jane Hannaford "Advance Australia Fair" quilt 1920-21 |
Ok, so I'm not a fan of the appliqued whats-its on the above quilt ... but I love the soft tones (mixed with the odd strong tone) and the movement in the quilt ... I'd even go so far to say that I'd like one of these of my own ... in my home ... sans what-its.
At this stage of my tour around the exhibition, I started to question everything I thought I knew about quilting up to this point.
... and then, to drive home my ignorance further ...
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| Unknown Maker - "Wagga from Furnishing Fabrics" circa 1935 |
Improv!
Bold and almost solid colour!
Far out ... I needed a lie down ... and a good old think about things.
I came out of the exhibition a little dazed and confused ... I bought the book about the exhibition immediately, so that I might digest this a little further. You can find your copy here
I'm enjoying flicking through the pages of time ... I feel as though I'm time travelling, or am I in a time warp?
I originally started this blog as a time capsule. I would log my makes in the hope that my girls might one day decide to follow in my quilting footsteps. I wonder if in 50 years or so that they will draw inspiration from here ... and ... will it make them question themselves also?
Sx
I think its nice to see this as us being part of a long tradition in Quilt craft!
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised by the talent and variety; every era has clever and creative souls. The interesting idea to explore might be whether the old textiles that suit the tastes of today are shown. Might a curator organising a similar exhibition a few decades ago have chosen different work to feature? What style might star in another couple of decades?
ReplyDeleteI hope I have time to see the exhibition later this month.
(Yes to sans whatsits.)
Reminds me of that saying "everything old is new again" !
ReplyDeleteLOL, Some of the most modern quilts I've seen are more than 100 years old. The funny thing is I just read another blog post that says the same thing. Here's a link if you're interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/modern-quilts-old-fashioned-makers.html
It's great you lucked out on seeing the exhibition, so many amazing quilts...