A Love Affair with Quilts

Del Thomas personifies the kind of art collector that artists love. She adds quilts to the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection for a variety of reasons, but mostly because she develops a little love affair with each new piece. She wants to know everything about the work, what inspired it, what techniques were used, and how the fabric choices were made. She wants to meet the artist, learn about other quilts the artist has made, know what excites the artist about her work and propels her to design quilts. Del is the ideal collector.

Join Del Thomas on December 7th at 2:00 p.m. when she gives a tour of the exhibition and talks about each quilt and the artists in the exhibition. Del generously shares information about her collecting experience and will be available after the talk for questions. Admission is $5, and free for members of Visions Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts + Textiles.

As a quilt-maker herself, Del Thomas didn't decide to be a quilt collector. She fell in love. In 1985 Del bought a quilt at a guild auction because it was love at first sight. A year or so later, she fell in love again, and soon she was falling in love with more and more quilts until she realized this must be what it means to have a collection. The Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection was born.

Today, the collection has 250 quilts. In the beginning, Del was seduced by traditional quilts, but over the years quilters began experimenting and Del became smitten with art quilts. The Collection is nearly all art quilts.

The Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection is really several collections. It comprises the largest single collection of Ruth McDowell's quilts. The Collection has over 60 twelve inch square quilts. There is a strong selection of landscape motifs in the Collection especially quilts with trees and birds.

Recent Acquisitions from the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection features 28 quilts by 21 artists including eight quilts by Ruth McDowell. Several of the quilts have won awards at recent quilt shows and the newest quilts to the Collection will be on view for the first time.