Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

The Houston International Quilt Festival has a large hall for of a variety of exhibits each year. This year one of the exhibits displayed reproductions of 19th and early 20th century masterpiece quilts made with reproductions fabrics. The biennial event was sponsored by the France Patchwork nonprofit organization, one of the largest member organizations in the European Quilt Association. With more than 12,500 members, I suspect selecting the 30 quilts for the exhibition was difficult. Each quilt artist selects a quilt which inspired the reproduction. It is a wonderful bonus for the exhibition viewers when the quilter cites the specific inspiration quilt, which allows for additional learning and comparison. It is often difficult for the casual observer to know the antique from the new quilt from photographs, as the reproductions are usually to close to the...

This year the 39th annual AQSG Seminar was held in Maryland, the birthplace of the Baltimore Album Quilt. SO, it was no surprise that this particular quilt genre played a large role in the event. Two of the tours offered a glimpse of BAQs (Lovely Lane Museum and the Smithsonian History Museum). However the star of the event was the Maryland Quilts Exhibition curated by Debby Cooney. The Exhibition featured multiple wonderful BAQs, but it also reminded us of the wider perspective of quilts in Maryland. Chintz quilts, patchwork, trapunto, Mary Brown quilts and more. Everywhere you looked in this small room was another glimpse of eye candy. Another advantage of this exhibition was...everyone had the opportunity to see it as an attendee. No bus trip was required. I wish the exhibit could have been open...

I love borders or frames on quilts! I’m always looking for some new ideas for my borders. An exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art provided me with a LOT of new ideas for borders. Perhaps I should I say old ideas...really, really old ideas. Some third to fifth century ideas from Syria to be exact. For those of you wondering what is the oldest use of the diamond is in a square design, I would ask you to consider this mosaic. It might not be the earliest known to humanity, but from the third century it certainly is an early example, with...wait for it...multiple borders. This artist didn’t subscribe to the rule of three. Borders don’t need to be geometric shapes, they can also be people or animals. Granted some of these borders seem a...

This was our first time visiting the Pour L’Amour du Fil Quilt Show in Nantes, France. Held annually every April, it is a showcase for all things Quiltmania (publisher of quilt books and magazines) and more. I was teaching a workshop in the Netherlands shortly before the event, so we drove down to see the show and cross an item off of Kay’s bucket list. Plus, the quilt show theme was of particular interest to us. Spirit of the South focused on Pique de Marseille and Boutis, which is a chapter in our next book “Hidden Treasures.” Monique Alphand, a well-known expert on Marseille and Provencal textiles was having an exhibition of her private collection of chintz and boutis. (Yes, even though we were really there to see the boutis, Kay and I weren’t going to...

On the “to do” list for the Triplett Sisters is a trip to India to learn more about the textile treasures. But this exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, gave us a taste to remind us why India needs to stay on our bucket list. It displayed three centuries of royal treasures from the kingdom of Marwar-Johpur. Of the 250 objects on display, a large percentage of it was textiles. If you missed the exhibit in Houston, don’t worry the display travels to Seattle next Oct 18- Jan 21 and then Toronto. As we toured the exhibition I was stunned by the direct correlation to quilting. Not just the fact that chintz and other cotton fabric was included, but that shapes of jewelry replicated the feathered quilting designs we use. Or a tent...