Quilt National 1997

The biennial Quilt National show and travelling exhibit is about wall quilts. Not exclusively fabric art wall quilts, there are also quilts based on "traditional piecing". Whatever your quilting persuasion, there is something to fascinate and inspire, but also sometimes horrify and repel you.

For those of us not fortunate enough to see the exhibition in person, even though it is touring around many places, Quilt National have put photos of some of the quilts on their website. What I particularly liked was the inclusion of a piece by each artist, explaining some of their thinking behind their quilt.

Have a look at Miwako Miyamoto's A Gust of Wind made from cotton, blends and silks. This won a Juror's Award of Merit, and is, to my mind, a spectacular use of colour and piecing. As is Sharon Heidingsfelder's Friends on the Other Side, which I've stared at again and again, looking at it's mixture of fabrics, how the pieces are put together, and for its sheer beauty.

Beauty if, of course, very subjective. For example, I love Jane Burch Cochran's Looking for God which is made from painted canvas embellished with beads, buttons, sequins and other objects. But it does nothing for a friend of mine. Neither does Anneliese Jaros' Waves which is one of my favourites. I love the amazing sense of movement; my friend finds it too busy (but then she does get seasick!).

If, like me, you love nothing better than curling up with a book packed with things to admire and things to inspire, then you should have a look at Lark Book's Contemporary Quilts, a gallery of all 83 quilts in Quilt National '97. Co-produced with Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center it enables you to spend time looking closely at each quilt, something I find I don't often do on-line (and the quality of reproduction in the book is way beyond what my printer can reproduce).

Paging through Contemporary Quilts I find myself returning again and again to particular favourites, but also find that the ones I like changes with my moods. There are, inevitably, ones I don't think I'll ever like. But then the challenge is to work out why I don't like them, and why other people do (and they must have, or they wouldn't have been selected for the exhibiton!).

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