Another Quilt Exhibit: Bold Expressions at the Bellevue Art Museum
September 11, 2012
I finally went to see the quilt exhibit — Bold Expressions: African-American Quilts from the Collection of Corrine Riley — at the Bellevue Arts Museum (a city across Lake Washington from Seattle). This is an amazing collection, gathered over three decades. Most of the quilts were made between 1910 and the 1970s by women from Alabama, Texas, and other southern states. I thought that the bold, asymmetrical and improvised designs looked quite contemporary. This exhibit is definitely worth a trip before it closes on October 7th.

I was impressed by the industry of this quilt maker, who sewed thousands of tiny scraps into a stunning quilt.

These quilt blocks, made by Corrine Riley from old, collected fabrics, were suitable for framing and for sale in the museum gift shop for $190 each.
You can read more about this exhibit in this Seattle Times article.
A Day of Quilts in Bellingham and Samish Island
August 27, 2012
I made a day trip to Bellingham last week to see a quilt exhibit at the Whatcom Museum — American Quilts: The Democratic Art 1780 – 2007. The exhibit, which runs through October 28, 2012, displays about 30 quilts from Robert Shaw’s book of the same title. I wasn’t allowed to photograph the quilts in the exhibit, but you can see a few of them at this link.
The exhibit showcased mostly traditional pieced or appliqued quilts, such as the log cabin, grandmother’s flower garden, flying geese, whole cloth, Hawaiian quilts, etc. I was most struck by two things — first, how many of these cherished quilts were labelled “unknown quilter” — prized by collectors, but makers unknown. And second, the quality of the hand-stitching — so small and regular. These days, so many quilts are machine-quilted. I still do hand-quilting, but I don’t take the time to make my lines of quilting so close together. These quilts must have had five- or ten-times as many quilting stitches as any one of mine. Impressive!
I very much enjoyed my first visit to the Lightcatcher Museum, one of three buildings that comprise the Whatcom Museum. Its most striking feature is a curved translucent wall, which creates a radiant and luminous atmosphere in the building.
My day of quilts was just half over. One of my new friends, Bonnie, arranged for a small group to see some Joan Colvin quilts at the private home of Colvin’s son and daughter-in-law on Samish Island. Joan created “art” quilts. She had a painterly eye, using fabric to evoke a Northwest color palette in the scenes she created from Nature: “What is joyful, what delights me about fabric composition is that colored and textured fabrics have their own symbolism. Though they may speak in different contexts, they lie in wait for me to find their meaning and voice through juxtaposition.” — from Nature’s Studio by Joan Colvin
Here are the Joan Colvin quilts from her family’s private collection:
An exhibit of my watercolor sketches is now on display at the Elisabeth C. Miller Library at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle. The exhibit, which runs through September 28, is available for viewing during the library’s normal visiting hours. Please check this link for hours and driving directions.
I spent a delightful couple of hours yesterday morning with a group of six women who drove down from Bow, Washington to see the show. This is the first time I’ve actually met new friends through my blog, and they are each kindred spirits — some painters, a couple of librarians, some with ties to the Midwest, fellow travelers. I am touched that they made the effort to see my work and it was a real pleasure to meet them.
I was also very honored to see a stunning bouquet from the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market delivered to the Miller Library to celebrate my show. The bouquet is so beautiful, and it is such a thoughtful gesture of support from my friends at the Market. The bouquet was quite a showpiece of local, seasonal blooms — I was tickled to see a stem of blackberries tucked in among the flowers and greens!

Display cases show sample blog posts, some photographs, and tools of my trade — watercolor sets and journals.
I invite you all to stop by the Miller Library to see my show. And to spend some time visiting this wonderful horticultural resource in the city. Tomorrow’s blog post will take you along the trails of the Union Bay Natural Area adjacent to the Miller Library. And Friday’s post will introduce you to the Otis Douglas Hyde Herbarium, also part of the Center for Urban Horticulture. I’ll close here with some photographs from the demonstration gardens.