Quilts

More than 400 quilts, hand-sewn by church, school and community groups, schoolchildren and employees of Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, the pharmaceutical company with offices in Collegeville, were donated this month to the organization ABC (At-Risk Baby Crib) Quilts for use by children with AIDS in area hospitals.

Trample Not on the Oppressed. Drink and Die. These statements are so skillfully sewn into the century-old quilts that they're easy to miss. But Elaine Hedges makes a point of ferreting them out, as evidence that although women were shut out of political pursuits, they nevertheless promoted their causes with quilting needles. Hedges, professor of English and coordinator of Women's Studies at Towson State University, spoke last week at West Chester University as part of the Women's History Month celebration.

What started off as a crazy challenge has turned into a national competition. Barbara Spittler, owner of Grandmother's Patches, a needlework store on Route 100 in Eagle, had an unusual quilting fabric from the Hoffman Co. in Mission Viejo, Calif. "It was really kind of ugly," Spittler recalled with a laugh. "It had a black background with a Mardi Gras-type design on it. I had it at my display at the National Quilting Association Show in Easton this past winter. Two nationally known quilters saw the fabric and one challenged the other to make a quilt out of it using only the fabric.

Quilts designed by Coatesville Area School District children are on display at the Chester County Historical Society, 225 N. High St., West Chester, through Jan. 11. The society is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. With 87 silk-screened patterns designed and painted by students ages 6 through 12, the quilts contain scenes from the children's lives, translated into simple designs and brilliant colors. The quilts were produced under the guidance of professional artists.

A search for new meaning in old quilts has spawned a handsome exhibition and some heated debate over religious symbols in quilt designs. It is commonly believed that the women who pieced and appliqued quilts in the 19th century recorded patterns in their lives. Their gardens, the stars, lightning, trees, birds and baskets were their inspiration. They named their patterns Melon Patch, Wild Goose Chase, Cross Roads and Setting Sun. Drunkard's Path was an admonition; Delectable Mountains was an image from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress; Jacob's Ladder and Joseph's Coat came from Bible stories.

Houa Vue Mai is nothing if not adaptable. Using the skills her aunt and grandmother passed down to her so many years ago far off in the lush mountains of Laos, the young Hmong woman is supplementing the family income with her sewing. But unlike her ancestors, Houa Vue has no time to fashion intricately embroidered "story cloths" showing a succession of scenes filled with tiny stitched figures wearing traditional costumes. Every afternoon when she finishes work on the assembly line of a local chicken processing plant, Houa Vue goes home to make quilts.

Half the fun of going to a patchwork quilt sale - or even just to an exhibition - is trying to figure out the reason for each pattern's name. Take the 60 quilts that will be auctioned this afternoon at the 19th annual quilt auction at the Souderton Mennonite Homes, 207 W. Summit St., Souderton, Pa. Some names are self-evident, such as the quilt, number 18 in the auction catalogue, with a combination of squares and triangles making up an eight-...

Country sales next week will offer auctiongoers the chance to bid on carriages, quilts, a colossal collection of furniture - and, for do-it- yourselfers, a panoply of plumbing equipment. The plumbing equipment will be sold starting at 9:30 a.m. today in Voorhees, where Vilsmeier Auction Co. will sell off the equipment of the Joffe Plumbing Co., including vehicles, tools, water heaters, sinks, tubs, kitchen displays and office equipment. Among the vehicles to be sold are 10 vans - the newest a 1989 single-axle Hi-Cube - and seven pickup trucks, all but one of which are 1988 models.

The old question was "can serious quiltmaking survive the probable atrophy of that medium in our computer age?" Answering with an emphatic yes is the display titled "Six Continents of Quilts," now on view at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown. The question arose when dedicated quilters sensitive to matters of technique seemed essentially uninvolved in the larger issues of American art. But by the dawn of the great quilting revival of the 1970s, all that changed.

The fabric panels that Maine artists Gayle Fraas and Duncan Slade are exhibiting at Works Gallery are described as "quilts," but they're really quilted paintings. They're executed in dyes thickened with seaweed extract on cotton broadcloths that have been finished like quilts - backing, binding, etc. - and embellished with decorative stitching. That said, it's hard to think of the pieces as quilts, because they're easel-scale and framed like paintings or prints. Yet their fiber-art character ultimately prevails.

'Traditional, Modern, International" at Joan Perkes Fine Art is the commendable debut exhibition of a new gallery that opened its doors April 1 in a Lambertville neighborhood with a decidedly Cape May feel to it. From the start of this new venture, Perkes says, she was amazed at the phone calls she got from neighborhood people saying they had heard about her plans and wanted to know how they could help. Her enterprise was warmly welcomed as she set up shop in a large 1891 building where, once upon a time, spokes for automobile wheels were manufactured.

Choosing 48 quilts from 667 entries at Wayne Art Center's major international biennial competition felt like "attempting to separate the mastiffs from the Pomeranians," declared one of the show's three blue-ribbon judges, David McFadden, chief curator of New York's Museum of Arts and Design. This Art Quilt Elements 2012 exhibition is the 10th in a series that's fast becoming a regional classic and is now the Wayne Art Center's biggest draw. Other impressive numbers: More entries than ever came from more states (24 are participating)

10 for the Road Connecticut. Brookfield Film Festival 2012 - "Shorts and to the Point" runs March 30-31 at Brookfield Theatre for the Arts, 182 Whisconier Rd. $10. 8 p.m. March 30; 4 and 8 p.m. March 31. Reservations suggested. 203-775-2895; www.brookfieldartscommission.org . Delaware. "Spring Concert" by the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Julien Benichou, will be 7:30 p.m. March 24 at Mariner's Bethel Church, Ocean View. $35; students $15; children $5. 888-846-8600; www.midatlanticsympony.org . Maryland.

For anyone whose attention may have wandered away from close observation of the burgeoning quilt show circuit, "Quilt Art: International Expressions" at Michener Museum will yank you right back: It's a true dazzler. The show's 40 pieces by 24 contemporary quilt artists from nine countries provide a thoughtful, penetrating review of some of the best quiltmaking today. Quilt Art is Europe's leading advocacy group for innovative quiltmaking. It was founded in Britain in 1985, just as nontraditional quiltmaking was taking hold in Europe due to the influence of American artists and teachers.

Antiques/Art/Crafts Blur: Art /Design Cross Pollination Work by contemporary artists & designers whose practices blur the lines between the two fields. University of the Arts - Dorrance Hamilton Hall, 320 S. Broad St.; 215-717-6120. 8/26. Boardwalk Craft Show Boardwalk at Rio Grande Ave. All handmade products. 609-522-0378 or 609-522-0198. Wildwood Beach & Boardwalk, Lincoln Ave., Wildwood; 800-992-9732. 8/27. Bucks County Quilt Showcase Exhibit of quilts by local artisans.