Salvage/Selvedge is a fundraising project for the School of St Yared in Ethiopia culminating in a fabulous exhibition and auction this week in Fremantle, Western Australia. I am SO pleased that I got to see the exhibition while I am in this part of the country for Quiltwest.
Over a period of fifteen months, the 45 participants in the project lead by designer Jan Mullen have created 83 quilts from predominantly salvaged and repurposed fabrics such as suitings, upholstery offcuts, ties, silks and linens. These can be difficult fabrics to work with. Adding to the challenge, construction was restricted to three basic designs: log cabin, horizontal strippies, and quilt-as-you-go strippies. The results are remarkable.
All the works are available for purchase. I encourage you to check out the online Live Auction and Silent Auction catalogues to see the entire collection. Here are some installation photos (shared with permission).
The bright log cabin on this wall had me rueing giving away a bag of slippery solids just a month or two ago:
The furniture on the floor was salvaged from the side of the road:
But wait, there is more upstairs. This is one of the two rooms:
While we were enjoying the emporium, the acapella sounds of the Spooky Men of the West reverberated upstairs. Apparently, Sunday morning is practice day. It was very atmospheric and a wonderful way to spend my free morning between judging, teaching and exhibiting assignments. Thank you for taking me there Stephanie (and for stopping to let me buy a replacement camera card for the one that I left at home).
Charlotte Scott says
Thanks for sharing. It looks like a wonderful exhibit. I like the idea of a restriction in technique, and the works I could see show that even with a restriction like this there is enormous capacity for creativity and diversity.
Brenda Gael Smith says
I was speaking withone of the project participants todayand she said that an additionsl restriction was that they were not allowed to work with their favouritecolours. This pushed outside their comfort zone but they found it rewarding.
Penny Gold says
Thanks so much for this post and the links–so much inspiration here!
Brenda Gael Smith says
Thanks for stopping by Penny. There are many “worthy” projects out there but I was really impressed by the scale and quality of this work. I hope their auction is a resounding success.