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Sunday 11 September 2011

Saturday inspiration

Yesterday was a beautiful warm and sunny day here in Oslo, and my friend Leisha and I spent the day at the beautiful and historic Bogstad Manor. Our main reason for going was to see this:


Kirsti Hovland is such a talented fabric artist! The exhibition covers the development of writing from stone age to modern computer age. She has dyed and printed most of the fabrics herself to get the look of stone, wood and metal, and the execution of the quilts are so wonderful! She has also If you live within traveling distance of Bogstad, you should definitely go have a look! There is so much to look at, but here's a peek at my favorite pieces. 

This is a series of six small quilts showing the timeline she has covered - and it was so beautiful,and detailed 



This quilt was inspired by the petroglyphs in the area around Alta in Northern Norway (see the northern light in the borders?) - and one of my two top favorites 


Bronze age - love the combination of those strict lines in the piecing and the soft contours of the appliqué


This is the quilt I kept going back to - I have always had a soft spot for the Thousands of Pyramids pattern (never sewed it, though!), and I just loved the combination of an easily recognizable quilt pattern with the older Futhark (rune alphabet) appliqued as a border. And I love those little bursts of colured pieces of fabric in the binding 


Here's a quilt that probably don't need an explanation - isn't it amazing how easily recognizable the stem of a viking ship is? And I love the combination of the "wood carving" cable and the younger Futhark in the borders


Medieval writing on vellum - you can just feel the texture of it :-)


A jump to more modern time - isn't this one fun? - newspapers on news print


And this contemporary series in black/grey/green - so much fun



I say it again - if you can go see this, DO! It's open for another week. I also took lots of pictures at the manor and farm - will share those in my next post :-) Wishing everyone a wonderful Sunday!
Hugs and stitches from Anne Ida

5 comments:

Digna said...

Hi Anne Ida,

These are lovely quilts! Your favourite is also my favourite; I have seen the northern lights once, about ten years ago, as far south as the Netherlands, and I will never forget it. Lovely, the way it is presented in the border of this quilt! The quilts you show us here are so different from those in our country! Beautiful!
Thank you for the photos!
Digna

Lise said...

Thanks A LOT for showing the photos, do wish I could have seen the exhibition...

Quiltefia said...

Hei!! Var det ikke en flott utstilling!? Jeg var helt stumm. Håper at mange fikk den med seg!! Hilsen AnneKari:-)

Valerie the Pumpkin Patch Quilter said...

Wow, these are really unique!

Wayne Kollinger said...

Anne

Thanks for showing us Kirsti Hovland's quilts. They are wonderful.

I have a soft spot in my heart for alphabet quilts. They are the reason I started quilting.

I wish these were mine. I wish I owned them. And I wish I had thought of the idea first.