Male Call: Quilts Made By Men (Golden, CO)

I was recently in the Denver area and had just a little time to visit the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum and tour their current show: “Male Call: Quilts Made By Men”. It was very interesting to see a collection of quilts made from the masculine viewpoint.

I was surprised that the majority were hand quilted! Some had a combination of hand and machine quilting and I recall only one being ornately long arm quilted-who knew? There was a wide variety of style and construction techniques and I had a blast viewing this show in the little time I was there.Desert Cactus II: Vacation In Charleston by J. Marcus Weekley was based on several Log Cabin variations. I enjoyed the energetic color choices on this one, but what you don’t see in this photo…you see here in his choice to use the gold lame to add sparkle to the quilt. That one fabric choice really sets this one apart and made for a subtle glistening.Ricky Tims’ “Firewall” was striking in person. He says he was using spontaneous and improvisational techniques to achieve the appearance of a fire within. Really simple piecing combined with fabulous hand dyed fabrics combine for great effect.“Trees” by Timothy J. Latimer represents the view outside of his studio window on a wintery day-can’t you just feel it? This quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted-all 78″x 94″ of it! Beautiful.“Lone Star” by Brian Clements is masterfully executed in my mind. This one made an initially subtle impact on me but then drew me in for some exquisite detail. He created the design in the areas between the stars, colored it in with pencils and long arm quilted the design lines. He added just enough crystals throughout the quilt to add sparkle without shouting “Embellished!”.He took a large scale print, made it the border and then quilted uneven piano keys for an almost applique look. Now, what really annoys me is that I have this same fabric, I recognized it as a very unique fabric, but could not figure out what to do with it. Why can’t I be this clever??I have long admired all of David Taylor’s work so I was delighted to see “Maynard” in person. This piece is amazing-it’s 54″x 81″, hand appliqued and machine quilted. You really get the feeling that you are standing in a snow drift, looking at Maynard.I think there are 4 different colors of thread in this tiny portion of the quilt which helps you understand how he achieves the feeling of snow drifts. Look at how he has created the look of barbed wire with thread and fabric!How many pieces of fabric were used to create Maynard’s neck and ear-30? 40?I didn’t know where to start on detail shots of “Another Time, Another Place” by Michael D. Marsh so I did not include any-there are too many! This was heavily hand quilted, all 85″x 92″ of it! It is beaded, hand and machine appliqued and painted. The design is created by expertly combining large and small scale applique motifs into this complex and beautiful scene. I admit that this one did not catch my eye at first-I just didn’t understand the design and layout-that big area of white confused me and it seemed a bit unbalanced. What do I know?

“Dropcloth 2011” by M Mueller depicts what the maker describes as his fascination and horror with mid-19th century depictions of slave ships. None of the red figures are alike, symbolizing the individuality of each slave. With that knowledge it becomes a powerful piece. There are red paint drops on the white portion of the quilt, hence “Dropcloth”.This initially had a subtle attraction for me-I liked it ok at first but then it drew me in for more detail.  “Kiruto” by Scott A. Murkin is made from a tessellating pattern using primarily Japanese fabrics that compliment the border fabric.If you look closely you can see the tessellating block repeated over and over. One thing that I love about this quilt is that it shows how much difference a single fabric can make. Look at that red fabric in the lower right hand corner with the little pure white spots (those are little bunnies). Now look back at the whole quilt photo and imagine the quilt without the energy of those white spots-cool, huh? This guy really knows how to use color and fabric.

There were many more quilts and photos that I just could not include in a blog post. I hope that if you are in the area you will go see for yourself. Wow, what a great way to spend a few hours!