Embroidered Collage

I wasn't in the right demographic for this presentation!  Well, I was on the information side, but the frequent references to "you probably wore something like this in the seventies" and such definitely made me chuckle inside.  I'm 30.  I was BORN in the seventies.  Those connection points were relevant for most of the room though.

On Sunday night Gayle spoke about her book Uncommon Threads: The Art Quilt Revolution in Ohio.  I had no idea that the state had been such a center for the movement.  Overall, it was a different perspective on the history of art in quilting than I had seen before.  I was intrigued to see that the first exhibit of "Patchwork as Art" was all the way back in 1909, and yet Gayle also showed a quote from the New York Time in 2002 which commented on museum-goers being surprised to see beaux-art blankies as art when they should be craft.

I didn't quite realize how the art quilt revolution in the seventies, although the term wasn't coined until 1986, and by an Ohioan, was based on the artistic exploration of the sixties, which was partially based on the vast number of students in the universities following the GI Bill after World War II.  And many of the quilters learned their skills from the ladies who had made quilts of necessity during the Depression.  It's hard for me to remember sometimes how influences span decades, although, when I think about it, my husband and I are looking forward to seeing the summer Transformers movie - which was spawned from our childhood two decades ago.

The presentation concluded with more slides of images of various quilts made by Ohioans over the years, and it was interesting to see the mix of styles.  I wish the color on the projector had been adjusted a bit though.  It kind of washed a lot of the images out.  I didn't buy the book itself, although many did, and Gayle was signing them in the back after the presentation was over.