Exhibition: Let The Tablecloth Speak

The Embedded DNA Storytelling of Heirloom Linens

Fabric Art Exhibition

Fragments of quilts bound and displaying the ancestors who used those the old quilts and left their DNA but have been forgotten — Floor Quilt: quilt fragments bound

An exhibition of 13 Quilted Pieces made from a single heirloom tablecloth with each section where a family member sat is made into a quilt that tells their story.

An image emerges from the cloth and a narrative is appliqued onto the fabric that hangs from a curtain rod around a dinner table adorned with three cups in “greeting mode”, a family bible, a domino game in progress and a statue constructed from items from The WhatNot Shelf. A “Floor-Quilt” made from fragments welcomes visitors into the exhibition. It displays images of family members who once used those quilts-turned fragments. It represents the forgotten legacies imbedded in the quilts.

During the exhibition visitors experience snippets of seven stories recorded over the years at family gatherings. The light activated playback triggers from an iron shanty on the wall as visitors unknowingly cast shadows over the table as if to have disturbed a sitting place.