Stitched: Contemporary Quilt Art from the International Quilt Festival Collection
Main Gallery
February 1, 2020
Extended through Summer 2020
For more than three decades, Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes, founders of Quilts, Inc., have been purchasing studio art quilts for their corporate collection, mostly from exhibitions at the Houston International Quilt Festival. Started by Bresenhan in 1974, and produced by Quilts, Inc., the annual Houston International Quilt Festival quickly became an international destination for quilters.

For the first time ever, part of this collection has been assembled into a nationally-touring exhibition. Dr. Sandra Sider, Curator for the Texas Quilt Museum, selected the quilts in the exhibition, which date from 1986-2010.  

The artists range from several of the most famous names in contemporary quilt art to emerging artists at the time of purchase whose innovative work caught the collectors’ attention. Themes and styles in this exhibition include narration, color abstraction, landscapes, the cosmos, and homage to antique quilts.

Click the button below to explore works highlighted on our online tour of the Pearl's current exhibitions:
Click below to watch Parts 1-4 of our virtual tour of Stitched: Contemporary Quilt Art from the International Quilt Festival
​The Texas Quilt Museum opened in 2011 and is located 100 miles outside Houston in the picturesque Central Texas town of La Grange.  Co-founded by Bresenhan and Puentes, the museum is housed in two historic 1890s buildings which were renovated to provide a showcase for both antique and contemporary quilt art.

​With exhibition space of over 10,000 square feet in three galleries, the museum organizes multiple quilt exhibitions each year, featuring artists from around the world.
Above:
Joan Frantz, "Square Root Cubed", 2006, 51" x 51"
Courtesy of the International Quilt Festival Collection