Patchwork & Quilting in Russia

16 February 2021

Last week I gave a talk via Zoom to the Richmond & Kew Quilters, of which I’m a member, plus various Friends of Russian Arts and others.  

I showed lots of colourful images from the big Quilt Festivals in Russia – the latest of which I attended, in the summer of 2019. We also looked at the work of Russian quiltmakers who have been invited to exhibit over the past few years at the UK Festival of Quilts. This takes place annually at the NEC in Birmingham, apart from last year, sadly.

I endeavoured to put the huge current interest in this art form in Russia into context by exploring its origins. I feel uniquely and very fortunately placed to talk about this because in the late 1980s / early 1990s I spent some time in Moscow and was in contact with the curator and textile artists who began the trend. I’ve followed its development ever since. It has been fascinating to witness the creativity and passion for quilting growing up in a relatively short time, certainly in comparison with western Europe and north America, where the concept of the art quilt goes back much further than the 1990s.

The Russian Quilt Festival’s website is full of interest and great pictures – see www.quiltshow.ru. This year (if it happens) the festival is due to take place in Kolomna and Zaraysk.  

Here are a few selected slides from my presentation:

Comfortable though it is to sit at home and talk to an audience via Zoom, I do miss going in person to speak to groups, not least because everyone, including me, enjoys handling and looking closely at the actual textiles I take with me. I have samples of Russian printed cottons that were given to me in 1989 by this most generous lady, Tatiana Smirnova. I’m sure many of us will recognise the phenomenon of the fabric stash, as demonstrated by Tatiana. My mother had an American quilter’s pin which said ‘She who dies with the most fabric wins’. But I think the aim should be ‘She who dies with the least fabric, having made up her whole stash into wonderful finished works of art, is the winner’.