1 of 3
Supplied
2 of 3
Supplied
3 of 3
Supplied
Most Southerners have experienced a firsthand intimacy with the beauty of handmade quilts, those bespoke artisan works that carry with them an entire aesthetic lexicon.
Small stitches speak of the maker’s ability, as do color palettes worthy of a French Impressionist, and patterns rendered through dazzling geometric configurations.
Quilts spanning two centuries are on display in the exhibit “Between the Layers: Art and Story in Tennessee Quilts” at the Tennessee State Museum’s new building through July 7.
The $160 million building that opened last October includes six exhibitions, a children's gallery, interactive tables and screens, and documentary films. Admission is free.
“Individually crafted quilts are more than just a traditional way to brighten beds and decorate homes,” says Candace Adelson, the museum’s senior curator of fashion and textiles. “They can also be important outlets for artistic expression. Composed of layers, both physical and metaphorical, a quilt may further hold a wealth of stories—private stories, economic or political stories, stories of changing tastes, and stories and emotions created by the quilts themselves in the memories of we who experience them.”
Particularly of interest for quilt enthusiasts and history buffs is the presence of log cabin quilts, a strictly American subset of the genre that appeared during the 1860s. The name references the design created by thin cloth strips that were assembled similarly to logs, when layered to build a cabin. Such quilts are where needlework graduates to fine art.
One special quilt on view is Rebecah Foster’s 1808 Eagle Quilt, the earliest known Tennessee quilt featuring a written date and signature. It features a blue eagle in the center with 17 stars representing the states of the Union at the time. The quilt displays the talents of a frontier woman, enhanced as it is with virtuoso appliqué, embroidery, and complex quilting.
The museum boasts more than 150,000 items within its permanent collection, and it is from this trove that these regional quilts were selected.
“We have hundreds of quilts from all across the state in the collection,” says Joe Pagetta, director of communications. “This is a perfect first new exhibit for us to have after the opening of the museum because it showcases the collection. A big part of the mission for the museum is that we are a statewide museum, so the fact that we get to pull in quilts from east, middle and west Tennessee is really thrilling.”