Laura Fisher is an expert on antique American quilts with an encyclopedic collection of 18th-19th century quilts, textiles and rugs available for sale on her website. The “target” quilt pictured above is one of several gems that still look vibrantly contemporary despite their age. Laura describes the work as a “monumental exercise of piecing and color placement”.

Taking a moment to contemplate a truly old man-made object is a bit like looking up at a star-filled sky; it’s a reminder of how fleeting and insignificant the near constant distractions of daily life really are.  The Metropolitan Museum’s current exhibition, Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition is full of such pinpoints for a larger perspective. Case in point: the Egyptian fragment pictured above, dating from the 8th-10th century.

The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. selected this textile laden painting by George Hendrik Breitner to highlight their current exhibition, “Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard”. Running through May 6th, the show looks at the influence photography had on painters at the turn of the 20th century — in particular, seven painters who took photographs and also painted from them.”Girl in Red Kimono, Geesje Kwak” (shown cropped above) is deliciously rich with color, pattern, and cross-cultural juxtapositions: the European girl, the Japanese kimono, the ottoman carpet. The contrast of patterns speaks to the compositional power of textiles, both singularly and in combination.

Click here to see a cherry blossom kimono from the Metropolitan Museum’s collection.

Polly Barton is one of eleven contemporary textile artists whose work will be featured in The Textile Museum’s upcoming exhibition, “Sourcing The Museum” (3/23/12 – 8/19/12). Under the direction of Jack Lenor Larsen, the show’s contributing artists were invited to create new works in direct response to the inspirational contents of the museum’s rich historical collection. Both new and old works will be on display, creating a visual dialogue that the museum subtitles “museum as muse”.

Above, Barton’s 35″ square double ikat called “Blue Veil“.

This wool tapestry by Alan Davie (shown cropped above) is a jewel among a handful of “Interiors” auctions containing carpets and textiles at Christie’s this month. Davie’s short Wikipedia biography describes a very full artistic life happily outside the mainstream. And at 92 it sounds like he’s still going strong: “Davie is currently working on a 40 metre watercolour which he calls his great masterpiece. He has sworn that it will be complete before he dies.”

Installed temporarily at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, this Textile Field by Kvradet and the design firm of Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec looks like absolute sensory heaven. What could be better than experiencing fine art on a grand scale while relaxing on a vast, soft expanse of color?

Via Curated.

And for a previous post on Bouroullec magic click here.

The National Tribute Quilt, on display at The American Folk Art Museum, New York City.

An exhibition titled Scrap Art is now on display at The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles  (running from 8/16 – 10/16). Barbara Wisnoski (previously posted about here) is among the artists represented. Above, a detail of her “folded circle”.

Drawing on “issues of iconography, identity, gender and Asian art”, Susie Vickery creates mind-bending embroidered portraits.

Above, a detail from Madonna of the Sari.

I’m a bit late to the party on this one but am nonetheless interested to learn that renowned contemporary painter Kenneth Noland (1924-2010) collaborated with Navajo weavers to create a series of his graphic and colorful works as tapestries. The Textile Museum featured some of these pieces in an exhibition last year and they are also featured in the book Gloria F. Ross & Modern Tapestry. Above, Arizona Sky designed by Noland and woven by Mary Lee Begay.