Quilt exhibition opening July 24 shows Victorian crazy quilts

Head-on collisions of imagination and luxurious materials are credited for the creation of quilts in the new exhibition at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "A Fairyland of Fabrics: The Victorian Crazy Quilt," on display at the museum July 24 through Oct. 25, features 19 one-of-a-kind Victorian-era quilts from the center's collection. This exhibition of lavish, over-the-top textiles and home interiors reflects a time when "more was more."

Beverly Gordon, professor of textile and apparel design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, curated the exhibition following her fellowship at the IQSC, where she studied dozens of examples of crazy quilts from the late 1800s and early 1900s. "Crazies" are made of irregular shapes of many varieties of material and have a seemingly random quality that often masks skillful planning and compositional treatment. Gordon notes, "The 'crazy' look was seen as the epitome of urbane, sophisticated taste. Asymmetrical, irregular geometric pattern and crazed lines (the term came from ceramics) were associated with the Japanese style, which had taken the public by storm at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia."

These quilts are "veritable showpieces, and true labors of love," Gordon said. She catalogued images depicting fauna and flora, buildings, children, politicians and even a celestial comet spotted in the 1890s. Visitors will see quilts constructed from cigar ribbons, wool suiting, calico, silk taffetas and satins, and embellished with lace, embroidery, paint, ribbons, beading, sequins and shells. Gordon said, "What really mattered on a crazy quilt was a feeling -- an evocation of a happy, dreamy place -- an enchanted fairyland or Never-Never-land that existed far away, apart from any painful realities or practicalities." Making a crazy quilt was one way women could temporarily escape for the unsettling, rapid change that accompanied industrialization, urbanization, and immigration at the end of the 19th century.

Programming during the exhibition includes:

* Sept. 15, noon, Tuesday Talk: "Fueled by Silk: Victorian Crazy Quilts" with Patricia Crews, museum director, free with admission.

* Oct. 13, noon, Tuesday Talk: "Caring for Your Quilt" with collections manager Janet Price, free with admission.

The International Quilt Study Center and Museum, 1523 N. 33rd St., was founded in 1997 and is the home of the largest publicly held quilt collection in the world. The museum opened in its new location in 2008. The privately funded, glass and brick "green" building houses more than 3,000 quilts, as well as state-of-the-art research and storage space, and custom-crafted galleries. The facility enhances the center's ability to pursue its mission to collect, preserve, study, exhibit and promote discovery of quilts and quiltmaking traditions from many cultures, countries and times.

The museum is open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sundays; closed Mondays and major holidays. Docent-led tours begin at 11 a.m. Wednesdays and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturdays. Reserved guided tours for groups of 10 or more are available during public hours. Please schedule at least four weeks in advance. Call (402) 472-6579 or e-mail iqsc-tours@unlnotes.unl.edu. Admission is $5 for adults (over 18); $3 for non-UNL students with ID and children; $10 for families; free for children under 5, museum members, and UNL faculty, staff and students with ID. For more information, call 472-6459 or visit www.quiltstudy.org. The International Quilt Study Center is an academic program of the Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design in the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences.