A little textile inspiration from my YouTube ‘Meet the Artist’ Collection. Today it features the Unconventional & Unexpected Too Exhibition – stunning American Quilts from the Kiracofe Collection.
Improvisationally pieced, bursting with colour, and unruly in the best of ways, 14 quilts from the Kiracofe collection were selected to go on display at The Festival of Quilts 2022.
In this video Roderick Kiracofe shares these stunning quilts and explains the stories behind the artworks.
For over 30 years, collector and author Roderick Kiracofe has played a significant role in shaping the American quilt landscape. His second book, Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar, now in its second edition, celebrates dozens of utterly unique — and gloriously unexpected — quilts from his famed collection.
Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar Book is available to purchase via this Amazon link.
The old things I found in our basement, the garage, or my grandmother’s home around the corner in a small town in Indiana, delighted me. When I was in high school I started going to auctions in the neighborhood and on farms surrounding my hometown. These objects represented the vestiges of an earlier time. They intrigued me, and I was hooked.
My curiosity about the “unexpected” quilts of the last half of the 20th century led me to eBay and other sources for seeking them out. The quilts that I am most passionate about are pieced, often crudely quilted or tied, and full of printed fabrics. Most importantly, they are the quirky, funky, and soulful expressions from a quilt maker who broke the rules.
Roderick Kiracofe
Filmed at the Festival of Quilts 2022.