New England Quilt Museum

On Thursday we took a day trip to Lowell, Mass., to the New England Quilt Museum.  We started off the day with breakfast at Cup & Crumb, just a few miles down the road on the way to the interstate.  We got there just in time; when we left, the line was out the door!

Since Elizabeth's sister Becky was not with us in Maine when we shopped at the LLBean store, we made a stop in Concord at the outlet.

The quilt museum is located in a complex of buildings that were former cotton mills at the height of the industrial revolution, and is now a National Historic Park.  These mill stone planters graced the entrance from the parking lot.

We always like to stop in at the visitor center.  They have informative displays and a film about the textile mills, as well as a gift shop. 

Then it was on to the museum to see the Threads of Resistance quilt exhibit. They also are featuring a Summer Celebration of New England Quilts made by members of the region's quilt guilds, and admission is free for the month of August.  There are a few smaller shows around town as well.

Elizabeth had been to the opening reception for TOR with some of the artists but was happy to make a return visit so that Sue and Becky could see the exhibit.  The museum does allow photos, but does not allow them to be shared on social media.  Below is a photo of the cover of the exhibit catalog, to give you a taste of some of the quilts.  You can see all in the traveling exhibit, as well as all 500+ entries on the TOR website, but nothing compares to seeing them in person.  Apart from the subject matter, there is such variety of technique in these quilts.  In fact, not all entries are by quilters.  Some are collage or digital artists, one is completely felted, one is done with rug hooking; they are all amazing.  We strongly recommend seeing this exhibit if it travels anywhere near you.

A bonus on this trip to the museum was finding out about 2 other small exhibits in the National Park complex.  One was an exhibit of Japanese influenced quilts by Allison Wilbur, a Rhode Island quilter who incorporates Japanese textile traditions in her work.

The other show at The Brush Art Gallery & Studios in the park complex was called "Little Black Dress".  "Quilts reflect where artists wore their little black dress, where they would like to wear their little black dress, what adventures await wearing their little black dress, or what fabrics their favorite little black dress was made of."

Though not scheduled to open till August 5, the quilts were hung and we were able to see them all.  This mosaic was one of Sue's favorites, though it was hard to choose just one picture to post.

We had lunch outdoors at a wonderful restaurant that was across the street from an old fire station built in 1889, though it is no longer used as such, there is now a restaurant on the ground floor.

And since we spent a few hours in the car, Sue and Elizabeth both took advantage of the time to do some shibori stitching for indigo dyeing.  That is on the agenda for today, so look for results in subsequent posts. 

It was a very full day, and of course included a stop for ice cream on the way home!

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.

Threads of Resistance

Back in February, a call went out for fiber art interpreting the theme "Threads of Resistance" for an exhibit organized by the Artist Circle Alliance to protest the Trump administration's actions and policies.  The Artist Circle, made up of 10 prominent art quilters, conceived this exhibit as an opportunity for fiber artists to express their hopes and dreams, fear and anger regarding this new administration. 

The entry deadline was May 1 and over 500 entries were received for this juried exhibit.  Though the jurying is not yet complete, an online gallery of the entries has been created so that all the artwork may be viewed and the artists' voices heard.  The number of pieces that will be chosen for the traveling exhibit is not known, but likely will be only a fraction of the submissions.  Whatever your views and political opinions, we appreciate this opportunity for fiber artists to have their voices heard. On the website menu, go to "the artwork" link to see the submissions which are divided by topic and can be played as slideshows.

Sue submitted a piece for this exhibit called "Women's Voices Matter"; it depicts the Women's March on DC on Jan. 21 in which she took part.  Here is Sue's quilt, which can also be found on the website in the Women's Rights group. 

There are currently 12 venues scheduled for the exhibit through October 2018.  If you have the opportunity to visit any of these venues beginning in July at the New England Quilt Museum, we're sure it will be an exhibit worth seeing.