I am writing to you from the Washington DC area, at the Not Fade Away conference put on by Quilt Alliance. (In Herndon VA, near Dulles Airport)
Before I leave for a full Saturday of conference panels and workshops, I wanted to tell you about our textile bus tour Friday. You may want to take note if you are coming to this area soon!
The DAR Museum has a beautiful exhibit of quilts called Eye on Elegance: Early Quilts of Maryland and Virginia. It runs through Sept 5, 2015. You may recall that last year we filmed three videos at the DAR Museum with curator Alden O’Brien, including a preview of this show in the basement archives. Go to our video page and scroll down to the DAR videos for a behind-the-scenes tour of this beautiful museum!
Our next stop on the bus tour was the fantastic new location of the Textile Museum at George Washington University. Wow, what a beautiful and impressive modern building to house the collections. We saw the “Unraveling Identity” exhibit, which examines textiles from across cultures, exploring individual, cultural, political, and social identity throughout the ages.
We also popped in on the SAQA exhibit “Radical Elements” at the National Academy of Sciences, which was fun because my best friend from childhood has been on the Stem Cell Advisory Committee there for about 20 years…but I’ve never been in the building.
At the end of the day we arrived at the Sacred Threads exhibit, and I had a nice long photo session with this amazing and inspirational collection of spiritual quilts. We continue to be a very proud sponsor of Sacred Threads, and I am just delighted at how the show, and the concept, have grown since Vikki Pignatelli got the idea for a show about Healing, Love, Brotherhood, Grief, and Joy. Lisa Ellis and her crew of loyal volunteers have put on a gorgeous show … again!
We also visited the opening of the quilt installations at the Inova Fall Oaks Hospital (treating cancer patients) on Thursday night, and it was wonderful to see all of the beautiful pieces hung in the private treatment and consultation spaces within the building.
The theme of the Not Fade Away conference is about saving the stories that go with each quilt, because that is what makes the quilt come alive. Each of these quilt exhibits had pieces that had history, memories, passion, anguish, and/or educational information. If only each quilt could speak out loud to us about these stories!
Approach each quilt as if you are meeting its maker, pause and breathe in the essence of the story, and let its message unfold in the quiet space of your heart.
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