The Art Quilt Collection

Wow--I just received my complimentary copy of The Art Quilt Collection: Designs and Inspiration from Around the World. What a lovely book. As Linda Seward notes in her introduction: "The excitement of looking at art quilts lies in their utter diversity..." The book itself includes work from some well known quilt makers in this country including Eileen Doughty, Joy Saville, Carol Taylor and Lisa Call among others.

However for me, I am most interested in the quilts of those I am less familiar with. For instance I love the quilt Tulips by Ineke Berlyn of the United Kingdom. In this quilt, the tulip petals are appliqued from many kinds of fabric--including candy wrappers-- to create a color study of fields of tulips stretching seemingly forever in The Netherlands. In Castle Wall by Trudy Kleinstein of Switzerland the artist uses thin strips of cotton to create the thick walls, tiny windows and stones of old ruined castles in her homeland. You can just feel the stories that must have occurred here.

Bongwefela by Sally Scott of South Africa is a word that means unity. This quilt uses great detail and modern interpretations of traditional designs to try to create her prayer for piece. From Australia, Pamela Fitzsimons created Skin/Eucalyptus a wonderful quilt that uses dyed fabric and the meditative process of hand stitching to create and abstract landscape that is at one minimalist but also dense with meaning. And I do love the experimental work of Chiaki Dosho of Japan. In Light & Dark II she uses old Japenese silk kimonos to create wonderful haunting color studies. You have to see them to understand the complexity.

Of course, I received my copy  because I am honored to have two quilts in this book. Both are studies of the broad horizons of the prairies where I grew up.  Dreams of the dawn tries to capture the rolling expanse of the sky encompassing the colors of the dawn.

Also included in this book is Prairie dawn--a quilt that tries to capture how big the sky is on the prairie.

What a thrill to see these quilts in such a lovely setting. As Linda Seward says in the introduction, this is a book that you will want to return to again and again. I know I will. The book itself is in hardcover and is nicely presented. Do check it out.

Amazon.com: The Art Quilt Collection: Designs & Inspiration from Around the World (9781936096084): L

www.amazon.com

 

What do you think?  What an honor.