A & E

There was a time was when quilts were made to keep folks warm. Many still are. But there have always been a few quilts so decorative, so beautiful, so artistic that it seems a shame to lock them away in a chest or closet. These are "art quilts," and they are made to be seen.

Far from the coverlets that our grandmothers assembled from scraps of leftover fabric, the 47 quilts on display in the latest exhibit to open at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art show the full spectrum of contemporary quilt-making techniques expressed in styles that range from impressionistic to abstract.

In fact, many of the contemporary works in "Rooted in Tradition: Art Quilts from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum" dramatically advance what can be done with the traditional quilt elements of surface, layers and stitching.

These quilts use hand-dyed and hand-painted fabrics, appliques, nontraditional batting and other exotic embellishments, often in eye-dazzling colors, with some even incorporating computer-generated imagery.

Altogether, this collection, drawn from the permanent collection of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, shows the growth of the art-quilt movement from traditionally based quilts, such as Marilyn Chaffee's "Tetrad I," made in the 1980s, to the newest art quilts that employ computer technology and digital printing.

Organized by decade, the exhibit is broken into three sections: Art Quilts of the 1980s: Rooted in Tradition; Art Quilts of the 1990s: The Watershed Years; and Art Quilts of the 2000s: Continuing the Tradition.

Even with the revolution in surface design and technology, much stays the same in the basic construction of art quilts. Most are still sewn, either by hand or machine. And many rely on the time-honored design of the repeated block.

For example, in the works from the 1980s section, many inventive pieces, such as Therese May's hand-painted abstract "Basket" (1988), hang alongside more traditional design-oriented works like Chaffee's "Tetrad I" (1981), which incorporates machine-pieced patterns that the artist hand quilted.

These works are exemplary for their use of new techniques being developed at the time, especially because fabric printers were beginning to develop new lines of fabric designed especially for quilts and important how-to books on quiltmaking were being published, most notably by Jean Ray Laury and Michael James, two artists included in this collection.

Then, as now, art quilts are still constructed in three layers:

• A front or top;

• A middle, which can be batting, canvas, flannel or some other material;

• And a backing or lining.

These layers are held together by stitching or other devices -- grommets, pins, staples, tacks, beads, buttons, etc.

By the 1990s, it was often impossible to distinguish the traditional block form in a quilt any longer; sometimes it disappeared altogether.

Two pieces in the 1990s section -- Diana Bunnell's "Sewing Down the Bones" (1993) and Sally Sellers' "Volume One" (1995) -- may seem far from traditional, even though they are basically constructed in the same way as all quilts. As wild and abstract as they are, they offer evidence as to why people who made quilts during that decade were no longer calling themselves "quilters," but "artists."

Art quilts being made in the current decade reflect both tradition and innovation. For example, works in the 2000s section incorporate the most diverse of quilting materials. Whereas most quilters were once rigidly limited to only 100-percent cotton, silk or wool, now anything was possible to use in art quilts -- netting, fiberglass, screening, rayon, even polyester.

Sandra Woock's "Eclipse" (2001), for example, appears as if a painting, but instead is made of hand-dyed fabrics that are machine-pieced and quilted. And Phil D. Jones' "Red Rover" (2003) looks every bit like an impressionist painting, even though it is machine quilted with rayon, metallic and monofilament threads.

It's worth noting that all of the artists represented in this exhibition are still working in the field. This continuing support and passion of the artists pushes the mainstream art museum and gallery community to take notice. These artists are the inspiration, guides and mentors for a whole new generation of artists. They have helped shape and change a powerful traditional medium into a truly new art form.

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