What secret would you dare to reveal in a quilt? For Quiltfest 2004, APNQ invited 52 of its members from five northwest states and four western Canadian provinces to interpret the theme "telling secrets." These quilts highlight the imaginative potential of the quilt as an art medium, including expressions and construction techniques of unlimited variety.
Participants interpreted the theme by asking themselves about a mystery that has revealed itself to them, being the object or teller of a secret, or perhaps sharing a secret that has never been told. Treatment of the theme includes family secrets, spiritual mysteries, humorous ideas, secrets of nature and mythology, secrets of the heart and other interesting enigmas. Techniques include selective cutting, elaborate piecing, embellishment, hand quilting, hand dyeing of fabrics, hand painting of fabrics, machine quilting with decorative threads, photographic transfer and appliqué.
Quilt artists participating in this invitational exhibition were randomly selected based only on membership in APNQ; no jurying was done. As members of the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters, each of the quiltmakers invited to create for this project has assisted the organization toward the realization of its mission: the promotion of quilters and quiltmaking in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.
Auctioned in 2004 to benefit APNQ, "Telling Secrets" quilts may still be viewed as part of a scripted slide show. For more information about renting the slideshow of this exhibit for your group, please contact the Slideshow Coordinator at info@apnq.org.
This project was sponsored by the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters and coordinated by Dionne Hersh-Matthies and Sharon Bakke.