London, London

I have just returned from ten brilliant days in London (with two special side trips) with my husband. As I had only been overseas once in the last 18 years this was a very special trip and celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.  My husband had a conference to go to for work (which was a unique occurrence in itself) and we had been planning to holiday somewhere to celebrate our 25th, so London looked like a a great choice, especially with a "once in a lifetime" quilt exhibition being held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. How lucky can a quilter be!? I will tell you about the trip over the next several posts. When I was last in London for more than a stop over I wasn't a quilter and it was 1984 so my interests were vastly different. I came home with a nice collection of "booty"-  fabric, textile items and books mostly and plenty of little gifts for family members which will be turning up on special occasions.

I will tell you about the exhibition first, even though it was in the second week of the trip. Quilts 1700-2010 was an amazing collection of quilts with stories attached to their making or histories. No photos were allowed but the book was an excellent record of the exhibition. Some quilts were simple home quilts, some custom made, some made to celebrate an event or occasion. A couple had the most amazingly detailed workmanship and are as significant to history as any "artwork". The audio guide was a good purchase as the low lighting and barriers prevented close inspection of the quilts at times and they could be viewed on the iTouch (iPod) zooming in on any details as desired. I wasn't taken with some of the modern quilts displayed but they were a reasonable cross section I suppose. One about civilian vs. military deaths in Iraq wars really caught my attention, however.

Australia's Rajah Quilt was even there and I hadn't managed to see it here in Australia as it's rarely on display.