QUILT EXHIBITS AT PIEDMONT ARTS CENTER IN VIRGINIA (Cheri)

We traveled about an hour and a half today, to Martinsville, Virginia, to see three quilting exhibits at the Piedmont Arts Center.

We had originally planned on taking our trailer and spending a couple of days in Martinsville, but that may be another day's trip.  (It was very gray, and getting colder as the day continued.)  Not a problem, as there are several simultaneous exhibits early next year that we want to return for.

Here is the artist's statement for the quilt above:

One of the exhibits was of about 15 quilts, by the local guild.

Another was of more than 40 quilts, by African-American artists.  This was my favorite of those quilts:

The HBCU's were listed in the "house" blocks, with the dates they were opened, going back well into the 1800's.

The final exhibits was the largest, from 40 quilters who work throughout the Southeast.  This first quilt shares a color scheme with the previous quilt, due to rust-dying, probably done in the sun:

I would definitely like to bring the focus back to some unused linens in this fashion!

These next two quilts could not be less like the former two.

I was torn between leading with this last quilt, or the homage to spring that I used.  This uses the repetitive, block-style approach that we see in most traditional quilts, but strays from that path in a really dramatic fashion:

Tomorrow I will do a short post on just two quilts by a single artist, in a collage style that I want to use myself.