"Beyond the Bed, The American Quilt Evolution"

A fantastic quilt show has just opened at the Katonah Museum of Art, located in Westchester County, NY. The exhibit is appropriately named, Beyond the Bed, The American Quilt Evolution, as it spans two hundred years of American quilt making. I was lucky enough to show up in time for an awesome tour with Nikki Alexander who walked us through the highlights of the exhibit. The show is divided into two parts: examples of historical quilts on one side of the museum and modern art quilts on the other.

Some of the traditional quilts include: a detailed crazy quilted coffin cover (upper right), a meticulous Baltimore album quilt, an intricately quilted Amish quilt, and a Hawaiian flag quilt.

The art quilt portion of the show features works by some of today’s finest art quilters, many of which are included in the collection, “One of the Top 100 Quilts of the Twentieth Century”.

There was a beautiful kaleidoscope quilt (upper right) by one of my favorite quilt artists, Paula Nadelstern.  Her amazing geometry is enhanced by pieces of silk that shimmer and make her quilt look like glass.

 Nancy Crow’s quilt is a brilliant interpretation of a traditional double wedding ring design.

One of the most unique “quilts” was an enchanting, three dimensional, free standing installation (upper right) by Dominique Ehrmann. The piece is constructed of four quilted layers and is like an illustrated, tunnel book.

These are just a few of the many incredible quilts in the show. If you live anywhere near Katonah, NY, I recommend that you stop by and enjoy the exhibit.