MERE WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE ... (Cheri)

I had heard that the Virginia Quilt Museum has a current exhibit about quilting during the Civil War.

Mark and I took a couple of days to drive to Harrisonburg, VA to see what turned out to be one of the best quilt exhibits I have ever seen, whether evaluated on an artistic or an emotional basis.

There was an exhibit of quilts made for the home during the Civil War.  The language of this poster at its beginning was well-considered:

It turned out, however, that the related but separate exhibit of quilts by the artist Leslie Riley was pure knock-out.

I have a few books by Ms. Riley, which focus mostly on the technique of  collaging fabrics and photographs.  The quilts in this exhibit - most of which were created this year - utilize her talents to an extraordinary level.

The quilt above, and below, speaks to the strong tie between Mary Todd Lincoln and her seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley.

(If you hover your smartphone camera over the QR code in each title card and click on the small URL that appears, you can read more about the quilt subjects.)

You can virtually feel the crisp taffeta that looks green from one direction, purple from another, in Ms. Keckley's dress in the scanned photograph.  The fabric at the bottom left evokes a Turkish rug:

and look at the items the ladies dropped on the floor!

This quilt depicts a Black nurse and scenes from her wartime life:

This one, a Black soldier:

Ms. Riley's wizardry in creating pithy captions is evident here:

[Additional Note (3/10/24):  The quilt above was the cover image for the Spring 2024 issue of Art Quilting Studio magazine, in which Ms. Riley discusses her techniques.]

She combined 25 separate vignettes of nurses in this quilt:

Mark pointed out that these nurses also have the "thousand-yard stare" that you see in soldiers and that, while soldiers have intermittent periods of travel and exercise, the nurses were seeing the worst horrors of war non-stop.

This is one of the simplest quilts, but such strong composition!

And a detail picture:

I couldn't take pictures of all of the quilts and their minute detailing.

My photography failed me on this quilt, but I had to include it, due to the succinct, gut-punch message:

I worry that our current politics will lead to another civil war.  These are images, and messages, to consider.