Threads of Resistance at New England Quilt Museum

Elizabeth is in New Hampshire at the family home in Melvin Village.  It is hard to be super motivated for summer quilt camp when your "partner in crime" is absent, so she has been focused on working through an on-line course for her Babylock Destiny sewing machine.  So far, she has learned how to create an applique from the built in shapes within the machine and then to insert the fill designs to quilt around it.  They are Christmas ornaments that could potentially look like bombs, depending on your imagination.

But on Saturday she took a brain break from the on-line course and left early in the day to drive to Lowell, Massachusetts which is about 2 hours away just across the state line.  Lowell is a fascinating city with a rightful place in history, especially in the Industrial Revolution and the Textile Industry.  The history of water powered mils is strong enough that the US Park Service has one of their National Historical Parks there. 

The purpose of the trip was to attend the premiere opening of an exhibit at The New England Quilt Museum called Threads of Resistance.  You may have heard of the exhibit or if you read our blog regularly, seen a piece Sue made when the call for entries went out.  Sue’s piece is part of the on-line exhibit. 

Elizabeth was pleased to see the quilts selected for display.  They were grouped, lit and hung so that the colors were extremely vibrant.  12 of the artists were present at the premiere.  They were positioned around the room next to their quilts so they could talk about them with the guests which was extremely interesting as they spoke about their techniques as well as their personal motivation for making their quilt.  Topics ranged from the environment, women’s bodies, basic human rights, to the president himself and his words and actions. While the museum allows you to photograph the quilts it does not allow photos to be posted on social media so if you can’t see this exhibit as it travels in the next 2 years, you can see them on the website or buy the show catalog.

Although she bought the catalog, Elizabeth thinks that color pictures do not do justice to the quilts. Another aspect of the show which added more depth were 90 second recordings of the artists talking about their quilts which you could hear over a cell phone while viewing each photo.  These recordings are also highlighted on the website blog for the exhibit; don’t miss them if you view the quilts on-line.  They add a lot of understanding to the literal and figurative voice of the maker.