V&A Quilts
I’m having a me day and have just visited the new Quilts exhibition at the V&A on my own (although I suspect Girl and Boy Lacer would have tolerated it, maybe even liked it but it’s no Decode with it’s flashing lights, obviously).
I like quilts but with several provisos, they can’t be too fussy being the principal one, to me the purpose of a quilt is to reuse or make use of material too small to be used for anything else, although of course I acknowledge there have been plenty of quilts made over history to demonstrate skill, to commerate and to just show off and the V&A exhibit has examples of all types, from a quilt made of waste material from a pyjama factory, a quilt made in secret in a concentration camp by a group of Girl Guides between the ages of 8 and 12, for their leader’s birthday, they had cut material from their own dresses, a quilt made collectively by a congregation of a church interested me, I can imagine this collective bunch of women coming together with their differing tastes, a quilt made by convicts on a ship going to Austraila, a quilt made by a soldier and a video of inmates at Wandsworth prison producing beautiful work reflecting their environment around them. A very interesting exhibition.
And of course there is also the exhibition shop, be prepared to possibly spend a lot of money, I’m thankful that I’d already ordered my fat quarters online, although the shop gave me plenty of ideas about what to make with them!
