Thomas B Shea/HC Houston is keeping a nearly 50 year old Hungarian blue-dyed quilt tradition alive with its display set to continue until Sunday. The quilts themselves are a beautiful combination of folk-art and Hungarian themes. With only seven families producing the required materials, Houston is doing the world a favor by preserving this time honored tradition.
Exhausted from 24 hours on a plane, curator Anna Dolányi nevertheless beams with pride as she points out the exquisite artistry of the Hungarian quilts on display at Houston's International Quilt Festival.
Each quilt is an ingenious composition of Hungarian blue-dyed fabrics and folk-art motifs. One reflects the variety of snowflakes' shapes, another the tiles on an old stove. Several quilts were done by a group, each block designed by an individual.
Dolányi says the 16-piece exhibit represents the best work of the Hungarian Patchwork Guild, a group she co-founded to introduce quilting to her country. While patchwork quilting was uncommon in Hungary before the guild was founded in 1989, the blue-dye process dates back to the 1770s. Read More on chron.com
|