Quilting is a craft but it is also an art.
In 1988, the Australian Quilters’ Guild created a travelling exhibition of small quilts. These were designed to fit into suitcases in order to travel the country, bringing people together in a vast network of experience and expertise.
For the show, forty-three textile artists from Australia were commissioned to make works, each measuring 72 by 112 centimetres. The pieces ranged from abstracts to landscapes, portraits to scenes of daily life, architecture to history, and, in a book that showcases every one of the entries, they are strikingly vibrant and complex.
“Australian Quilts: The People and Their Art” is now in the textile library at the studio in Greymouth Māwhera. Below are three of the pictures from the book showing how artists interpreted the brief to make something uniquely Australian.
The library will shortly be open to browsers and researchers. The collection includes books on weaving, textile techniques, sewing, knitting, individual artists, exhibitions and catalogues, as well as a set of encyclopedias about the textile industries and magazines.
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