Semper Tedium

Semper Tedium:

The Slow Art of Quiltmaking

Sponsored by Kaleidoscopes & Quilts

The International Quilt Festival and Quilt Market has many special exhibits on display for the duration of the show (held annually in Houston, Texas in late October - early November).  There are classic quilts, dolls, art quilts, a huge number and variety of many quilt and quilt-related collections.  This exhibit, Semper Tedium, from this year's Quilt Festival caught my eye on the last afternoon of the last day of Quilt Festival... and ...

I love it!

Let's begin with the title of the exhibit: Semper Tedium.  Could that mean Always Tedious or Forever Laborious?  Quilts do take a bit of time to create (from the start of an idea to the completed binding and label).   I will have my two in-house Latin experts work on the correct translation.  Meanwhile, take a close look at these first two quilts.  Can you identify from what are they made?  Is it classic cotton, batting and thread of a traditional quilt?  or is it something new and innovative (can you guess? ... hint: think ties ... but not neckties!)

Blind Stitching, Twist Tie Quilt #5

by Amy Orr

of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

 detail of Blind Stitching

"Amy Orr makes art from a palette of post-consumer materials including religious mementos, credit cards, twist ties, chicken bones, shattered auto glass, plastic parts and currency.  She uses these elements to create patterns; building elaborately pieced and patterned surfaces.  Orr's work pays homage to women's work, using cultural ephemera in place of fabric scraps.  Orr is fascinated by the ordinary, drawn to particular artifacts for their abundance, color and inherent content."

Techniques:  Pieced, stitched, appliqued, tied

Design Source:  This quilt was inspired by a historic Log Cabin quilt from the 1800s, made of dark silk ribbons with colorful edging.

 Double Vision, Twist Tie Quilt #6

by Amy Orr

of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

 detail of Double Vision

"This quilt was influenced by an eye chart.  As the pattern moves from top to bottom, the pattern breaks down.  During the time that I made Blind Stitching  and Double Vision, I was going through Graves' disease which seriously affected my vision.  Surprisingly, I found that I could stitch by feel and even thread a quilting needle."

Techniques:  Pieced, stitched, appliqued, tied

Design source:  An eye chart

Now for something a bit different, yet hanging side-by-side in the same exhibit are these two kaleidoscope quilts by the expert kaleidoscope quilter, Paula Nadelstern.  Yet look closely for the twists she presents to her renowned kaleidoscope patterns....

 Kaleidoscopic XXXI:  The Other Side of the Circle

by Paula Nadelstern

of Bronx, New York, USA

 detail of The Other Side of the Circle

"A kaleidoscope functions like a circle.  Structurally, it may be a geometric shape but to uncover its artistic soul, you have to think of it a a radial design.  When you work in a series, the questions you ask get more complex while the answers get simpler.  This time I wondered, how can I use the same structure to make the eye travel in straight lines before it discovers the circles?  A year later, I'd created an inversion of my usual vision because the circle became a negative space rather than the foreground."

Design source:  Kaleidoscopes
Techniques:  Machine pieced, hand quilted


This was the quilt that drew my eye first to this exhibit and specifically to these four quilts.  Is it no surprise?  It is the most colorful of the bunch!

 Kaleidoscopic XXXIII: Shards

by Paula Nadelstern

of Bronx, New York, USA

detail of Shards

"The object case of a kaleidoscope may contain whole elements or small fragments of larger objects.  Frequently these objects are colored glass in saturated jewel tones that, because of their transparency, allow light to pass through, resulting in the characteristic sharp brilliance of reflected kaleidoscopic imagery.  In this quilt, the idea of fragments is interpreted literally.  The kaleidoscopes are 'broken' into pieces and 'cemented' back together with irregularly stitched silver-gray fabric.  The broken shards required the creation of entire triangular wedges that were then deconstructed and reassembled into shattered mandalas.  The labor-intensive process required eighteen months to complete."

Design source:  Kaleidoscopes
Techniques:  Machine pieced, hand and machine quilted


Makes you wonder just what will they use next to make a quilt?  What will you use???