Art Quilts

For two years while I was in college I took art classes with focuses in figure drawing and textile arts. Since then I have returned and taken more art classes periodically in design, color, drawing, and ceramics. My love of art goes back to when I was a child and I tried for a few years to be a textile artist as my primary occupation. Recently I have been looking at my accumulated bins of material and thinking that I would very much like to make quilts for some of the people that I love. Quilts are an investment of time and energy in addition to materials and making them for someone else is to accumulate positive energy and give it to another person to wrap them in warmth. It is a tangible talisman that represents caring.

But quilts are not just the colorful scraps of material sewn in traditional patterns anymore. Quilts have always been very individual things and they have become even more so.

I went looking across the internet this morning to find ideas for quilts and to admire things that other people have done. Here is a sampling of the art quilts that I came across:



This quilt was presented by Alessandra Bravo of Lucuma Designs and the link where I found it is: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/1/prweb500012.htm The description next to the image it says "Much like American quilters, arpillera makers work in small groups and often collaborate on larger pieces. Since a large arpillera may take weeks to finish, Silvia shares her gift for layout and fine detail by overseeing the work of other artists." This post was from 2007. The link to lucuma designs is: http://www.lucuma.com/ Lucuma designs offers items created in Lima, Peru and is dedicated to a fair trade ethic.


This quilt is titled "Under Northern Lights" and it was created by Regina Browne. She is a textile artist from Montana and Arizona whose website can be found at: http://reginabrowne.com/index.html Several of her pieces are for sale and are being exhibited through various galleries.


This quilt was made by Rose Rushbrooke whose website can be found at: http://www.roserushbrooke.com/index.htmlOn her website it lists the various exhibitions and galleries that have displayed her art, there are tutorials for creating art quilts, and she discusses fractals and the link between science and art. She has a very interesting website with much to offer.

These are just a few of the beautiful images of quilts that I could find this morning. I could easily post dozens more exquisite examples of art quilts and I may dedicate another post to art quilts. What started as a way to recycle bits of worn or extra fabric has turned into an art form of its own.