Bonham, Texas -- The Sam Rayburn Museum, a division of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, proudly presents Boldly Graphic: Two-Color Quilts from the Winedale Quilt Collection. The exhibit is free and open to the public and will run through August 4, 2018.
American quiltmakers have long been drawn toward two-color quilts. Usually made with pieces of a single solid-color fabric sewn onto a white background, such quilts are highly graphic in nature, emphasizing pattern rather than a pleasing mix of various colors. The Briscoe Center's Winedale Quilt Collection contains many such quilts, both pieced and appliquéd, dating from 1845. This exhibit brings these quilts together for the first time.
The highly graphic two-color quilt style began in the 1840s once a huge variety of commercially produced cotton fabrics were available and affordable to many households. Quilt historians today recognize that the two most popular color combinations were blue and white and red and white. Blue-and-white quilts flourished in the second half of the nineteenth century. Red-and-white quilts, especially popular between the 1880s and the 1920s, claim a close second in popularity.
The Winedale Quilt Collection is a scholarly resource that supports the study of quilts and their history. Its mission is to collect, preserve, and provide access to American quilts and quilt history materials documenting the role of quilts in American culture. The collection contains more than 550 quilts and spans 200 years of quiltmaking. It covers a broad range of quilts with a special emphasis on those made in Texas or brought to Texas in the nineteenth century. In 2016, the Briscoe Center worked with University of Texas Press to publish an extensive survey of the collection, Comfort and Glory by Katherine Adams, the collection's longtime curator.
For more information, please call 903-583-2455 or email e.trent@austin.utexas.edu