… Recent attention to the quilt as an object of art historical significance in North America has engaged with abstraction and pattern among other issues to raise important questions regarding religion, gender and race. Quilting traditions stretching back into the Middle Ages in the British Isles reveal a similarly rich yet much more neglected art history, subtly distinct from themes of the North American tradition. Across Britain, quilters’ histories have been shaped by class, domesticity, regionalism, gender and geography, and their work raises its own provocations for how art historical research reflects, challenges and informs an endangered living tradition still practiced in Britain today … Research Seminar – Deb McGuire, Jess Bailey, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 26 March 2025
… Fine Cell Work is a charity and social enterprise committed to the rehabilitation of prisoners through providing them with purposeful activity.The organization does this by teaching them soft work skills, by training and paying them to do exquisite needlework to create beautiful products for sale. There are currently over 80,000 people in the UK prison system. The majority of these people have experienced significant marginalization and trauma throughout their lives.Many become trapped within a devastating cycle of reoffending and repeated imprisonment. One of the most effective ways of breaking this cycle and providing real rehabilitation is to support people in and leaving prison to access professional employment. And that's exactly what Fine Cell Work does … Sew What? Podcast, 27 September 2024
Award winners at QuiltCon 2025 in Phoenix Arizona in February.
The quilts that hold the heart of Hawaii
What happens when one of the most traditional museums in the world revolutionises the way it presents the story of the past? The answer is not only a riot of craft and colour, but a reminder of the crucial role of textiles in framing our histories.
The Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford, in the UK, has just added 15 brand new, intensely colourful Hawaiian quilts to its collection of extraordinary artifacts … Haptic and Hue (Podcast) S7 E42 (42 minutes), 6 February 2025
… Their large size—each one more than eight feet square—and bold patterning are a powerful expression of Mrs. Washington’s creative vision, and an important complement to the popular image of a diminutive, self-effacing, grandmotherly figure. In late 2019, Mount Vernon received the generous donation of a quilt top pieced by Martha Washington, the best documented of only three piecework quilts known to be made by her. Its addition to Mount Vernon’s collection coincides with a new initiative to document, research, conserve, and ultimately exhibit these works of art … Amanda Isaac, Mount Vernon Magazine
… why is embroidery enjoying a renaissance? Hasn’t it been around for eons?
From what I can see, this is fascinating because traditional, contemporary, and innovative embroidery is flourishing across social media. Again, why? What’s the value of embroidery in the 21st century? Cathy Jack Coupland, Stitch Safari Podcast, 17 February 2025
… Even though several examples of embroidered fabrics from Camp Brastagi have survived, none of them are as elaborate as this book. It shows the artistic power of those women, who in captivity jointly created a book, which may have allowed them to escape from their awful situation just for a moment. This book made from fabrics is a valuable historical artefact which not only shows the creativity and the resilience of the women in the camp, but is also a poignant reminder of a dark period in history.Rijksmuseum Bulletin, Vol 71, No 3, 2023, Mattie Boom and Suzan Meier (Abstract)
Images of each page of the book are available as a downloadable .pdf from this web page.
(Sourced via @historicembroidery on Instagram, 23 February 2025)
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