Interwoven Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum

Looking at a friend's blog this morning reminded me of the Interwoven exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC that runs until January. We stayed in the city for two days before going to France and went to the exhibit having read about it in the New York Times. If you plan to visit the city between now and January make sure you see this exhibit. There are only a couple of quilts in the display but that's okay. The other splendors more than make up for that. Exquisite embroidery from 500 years ago--amazing dresses that are both embroidered and hand painted--tablecloths and altar cloths. For me it wasn't just that the pieces were beautiful. The very thought of doing that kind of work with who knows what kind of needle and under candle light bowled me over. Then, one of the points of the exhibit, the various places that the materials came from coming together to enable the making of that wonderful work simply astounded me. There was a bedcover from Mexico where the cotton came from Mexico, the wool from South America, and the silk from China--all in a bedcover made by a woman more than 300 years ago for her marriage bed.  There was a yellow silk gown from Revolutionary America that had a fascinating hem treatment, tucked and pleated silk that was left raw edged on the top and the bottom but cut into points on the bottom side. This whole band of wonderful handwork was sewn to the bottom edge of the gown--yards and yards of pleated silk in wonderful points. Anyway, this is a must see show.

I found a picture from the last time we had the nutcrackers on display at our house. Keep in mind that this is just a fraction of the total. The others are in various places in the living room.