The V&A quilt show (finally!)
As part of my busy-week programme, I finally managed to get to the quilt show at the V&A yesterday. This was amazingly good, and I fully intend to go again before it closes. Some very minor cavils first - it was very busy, crammed solid with frighteningly knowledgeable women, and rather dimly lit, which is quite understandable, but more annoyingly there wasn’t much information on the labels, apart from stuff you could figure out for yourself. It would have been nice to have something more than just “cotton” or “silk”, like where the fabrics were from. Perhaps on my next visit I’ll take up one of the audioguides and see if they have more information. I did buy the excellent catalogue a while ago, and will re-read it now to see if there’s any more information there. Otherwise though, it was a stellar show, with lovely examples of mainly English-style quilts, with the pieces tacked onto papers, although there were some other types, including a gorgeous crazy quilt in velvets and silks. I liked the way some of the bed-covers were displayed flat, as if on an actual bed, although this did make some of the details a bit hard to see, and I loved the little doll’s beds with their own sets of quilts and sheets. There was a lot of plain quilting as well as pieced quilts, including a whole section on the revival of hand-quilting in the 1930s. One interesting thing was that a lot of the quilts still had the papers in. The catalogue mentions that they were used to date quilts, and had perhaps been left in to make them warmer. However, since they certainly hadn’t been left in on the definitively finished pieces, like the full set of bed cover and hangings that is the first thing you see on coming in, and were tacked in with big, obvious stitches, I suspect that some of the quilts just hadn’t been finished, which I found very reassuring, in the light of my pile of unfinished projects (ahem, abandoned quilt from the 1980s in trunk under bed). I’m not sure if I came out feeling inspired to do more work of my own, or too intimidated to start, but since I’m seeing the brother tomorrow, I am now going to make up a sketch pattern and some swatches for the anniversary quilt, that he can show his wife.
No pictures from the exhibition (although there are some very good ones in the exhibition website), but I did get a shot of the rather charming psychedelic baby elephant outside the main entrance.
Today was meant to be taken up by a trip to Ikea, but after yesterday’s very mild migraine, I woke a bit late this morning, and went straight into a much less mild one, so I’ve only been surfaced and functioning since about three this afternoon. Still, I probably needed the rest, and when I did get to check my email there was a firm offer of at least a week’s work after the bank holiday. So, Yay!
No pictures from the exhibition (although there are some very good ones in the exhibition website), but I did get a shot of the rather charming psychedelic baby elephant outside the main entrance.
Today was meant to be taken up by a trip to Ikea, but after yesterday’s very mild migraine, I woke a bit late this morning, and went straight into a much less mild one, so I’ve only been surfaced and functioning since about three this afternoon. Still, I probably needed the rest, and when I did get to check my email there was a firm offer of at least a week’s work after the bank holiday. So, Yay!