Quilts in Capital Country...

The 2023 catch up tour continued with making it to the ACT to visit with my friends...and the bonus of the 12 month delay is the Rajah Quilt being on exhibition at the National Gallery! I'd seen it before when it was in Melbourne but there are some things you don't miss if you get another opportunity...

 

Thursday morning E and I headed off for a day of quilt viewing as in my interweb wanderings I'd found there was also a small quilt exhibition in Queanbeyan...A Stitch in Time at Rusten House Arts Centre.  A small one room exhibition of quilts from the Quilts 2000 project, the opening of the QBN Bicentennial Hall and the Centenary of Federation commemorations.

It was nice to see older quilts being brought out again and Rusten House is a beautiful old building.

Morning tea in a cafe in town and a look in a couple of shops before crossing back into the ACT and heading to the National Gallery and the Rajah Quilt!  These really interesting pots were passed on the way to the quilt exhibition space...created by Juz Kitson the collection is called A Lament for the Wildfires (the link goes to the National Gallery page for the collection)...they were incredible up close, the detail...

We had planned to have lunch at the National Gallery and then see the quilts, but when we got there we discovered the restaurant has been shut leaving only a coffee cart type arrangement outside which had no food left, after all it was about 12:30!  So we went in to see the quilts...

 

At the entrance...possum skin cloak...I didn't remember this from the exhibition in Melbourne but I'm told it was there so there you go...

There is so much detail and so many elements that make up the designs on the cloak...a relatively recent make revitalising cultural practices...And then...there it was...front and centre when entering the space...The Rajah Quilt...the sheer size of the coverlet, I forgot just how big it is...325cm x 337cm (that's about 10' 8" x 11' 2/3")...huge!

Then it was on to the rest of the exhibition A Century of Quilts...smaller than what we saw in Melbourne but still plenty to ooh and aah over...a selection...

 

Fortunately, after we'd seen the quilts and were wandering around as we made our way back down to the front door, one of the security guards told us the cafe at the National Portrait Gallery is still operating - literally across the road on the other side of where we'd parked the car, so we walked over there and had a nice late-ish lunch.  Seeing as how we were there I had a look around the exhibitions as I'd never been there before.  There is so much to do in Canberra really.

 

Only a quick trip to Canberra this time but I achieved the objectives - seeing my friends and seeing the Rajah Quilt again.

Happy Stitching...