'Dressed to Quilt' by Ineke Berlyn
16th May - 30th August 2014
Textile Artist Ineke Berlyn will be exhibiting her first solo show at The Quilt Museum and Gallery this summer. Her collection of “dress fronts” challenges perceptions of quilting in its traditional sense as well as our expectations of the classic dress silhouette. By combining quilting and art-cloth techniques the dresses are transformed into canvases that chart a six year period in Ineke’s creative journey drawing on her exploration of hand and machine stitching, surface design and embellishment.
To complement the Exhibition, Ineke’s ‘Mother of the Bride’ dress, a prize-winner in the Contemporary Small Section at the Festival of Quilts in 2008, will also be on display as well as a traditional, vintage Dutch costume. The ‘Mother of the Bride’ dress, which she wore to her daughter’s wedding, is made of linen painted with dissolving silks screen, quilted with a combination of hand and machine stitching and embellished with beads and silk organza spirals. The vintage Dutch costume inspired her Staphorst dress front and draws us back to Ineke’s earliest memories of growing up in Holland.
A visual feast, Dressed to Quilt embraces a range of textile techniques that will delight textile enthusiasts and quilters. Aware that visitors to the Museum see this as an opportunity for learning and inspiration, a range of resources are being made available including a display of detailed sketchbooks illustrating Ineke’s design notes, processes and solutions. Her most recent publications including “Collections” will be on sale at The Quilt Museum shop and a full day experimental textile workshop is being held on 4 June, led by Ineke and where she will introduce some of her art-cloth techniques.
“We are thrilled to be showing Ineke’s work at The Quilt Museum and Gallery. The convergence of innovative textile techniques with machine and hand quilting make for a fresh and exciting exhibition which will appeal to both traditional and contemporary audiences”, said Museum Manager, Fiona Diaper.