Indigo, an ancient botanical pigment, produces shades of blue from pale sky to inky midnight. Most natural dyes fade relatively quickly, but indigo is colorfast—it may lighten over time but always remains blue. For thousands of years, people around the world have treasured textiles dyed with indigo. A synthetic version, developed in the 1880s, still colors today’s blue jeans. This exhibition presents twenty quilts created between the early 1800s and 2015. Each one incorporates fabric dyed with indigo. The quilts on view showcase a range of indigo dyeing techniques as well as the skill, design sensibility, and artistry of the women who made them.
"Indigo and the Art of Quiltmaking" is organized by the International Quilt Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, home to the largest public collection of quilts in the world.
Header image credit: Rella Hall Thompson (American, 1877–1962), “String Squares” Quilt, detail, about 1925, Franklin County , North Carolina, hand-pieced and hand-quilted cotton, 85 x 68 1/2 in. (216 x 174 cm). International Quilt Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Donated by Kathlyn F. Sullivan in honor of the Thompson, Alston and Cooke family of Franklin County, NC, 2019.123.0001
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