They may be made by some grandmothers, but these are not the quilts most of us picture when we imagine nine-patch and log-cabin counterpanes. The quilts exhibited at the Longmont Museum and Cultural Center’s “Don’t Fence Me In” show are quilts with attitude.
Many feature cloth pieces that traveled through a computer printer and emerged with photographs of faces, buildings, animals, coins and other talismans. They are quilts that invite contemplation, not snuggling.
They are made of scraps of cloth (and sometimes paper) that have been dyed, ripped, fused, painted, stitched, beaded, stained, embroidered, stamped, singed and, in one case, first buried in the artist’s compost pile.
“t was six months in my composter,” said Gretchen Hill, whose stunning quilt, “Abandoned 2,” suggests pictographs on a tanned bison hide.
“I wanted to see what being buried would do to fabric scraps, and some objects I buried with them.”
The result is a charismatic, dusky background with fraying, singed edges that imply age and frailty. Unquestionably, the latter is true; Hill sewed a fine netting over “Abandoned 2” to safeguard the frangible fabric.
The nearly invisible nettingis popular both as a preservative for quilts expected to travel for months or years, and as a subtle filter for underlying materials that are reflective or luminous.Jamie Eloise Bolane’s extraordinary “Horse Zen” contains layered rows of silk that, unmuted, would cause a distracting refraction in direct light. Under the mesh, those silk strata assume an almost animate glow.
The horses’ whipping manes, machine-stitched in free-form embroidery technique, add to the effect.
“With free-form embroidery, you drop the feed-dogs — the teeth that pull the fabric forward as the machine sews — and instead feed through the fabric manually,” Bolane explained. The result twines vibrant lines of stitches that double back on themselves and over each other.
Other quilts show lively wit. Boulder quilter Betsy Cannon is famous for using vibrant colors and whimsical subjects, like an eye-popping armadillo in one of three quilts in this exhibit.
Gaye E. Lasher’s sense of humor shows in her titles. Front and center in her “Cow Pie” is an pie crust filled with Holsteins. “Gunfight at Potato Canyon” is tiny cowboys balancing on enormous, towering tubers, and nobody who sees “Defending Fort Breadstick” will ever see log forts quite the same way again.
Nearly all of the 65 quilters in “Don’t Fence Me In” are members of the Piecemakers, a northern Colorado fabric art and quilt group, and the Denver-based Quilt Explorations. Some of the artists will present adult workshops, children’s classes and lectures in April.
The exhibit also includes a simple interactive display where visitors can rearrange bits of felt to render temporary versions of contemporary and traditional designs.
Stitching it all together
Interested in learning more about fiber arts? Look into these sources:
• Front Range Contemporary Quilters,
• League of Northern Colorado Quilters,
• Biennial quilting symposium, June 18-22, Estes Park,
• International Quilt Study Center & Museum, Lincoln, Neb., 402-472-7232,
• Colorado Quilting Council Inc.,
• Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, Golden, 303-277-0377,
