Visiting the V&A

Yesterday I told you of my train journey from Tring to London.

Today we are going to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum!! The Museum (abbreviated V&A) is the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert….

When we were living in Oxford for two months back in 2007, I visited the V&A twice. On the first visit, I only had a few minutes to visit the needlework section so made a plan to go back another day. On the return day, some of the museum workers were on strike so certain exhibits were not open. You guessed it…..the needlework area was closed!!!

So, my first thought on returning to London was to explore that exhibit, looking forward to opening these cases one after the other and taking in all of the wonderful handwork…..

After walking through numerous galleries, I finally found an information desk and asked the all important question….”Where is the needlework gallery”. The helper sensed my concern and carefully told me that parts of the V&A collection were being moved to another building and that the exhibit was currently packed up and in transit. But, she said “it will be open to the public in 2025”!! Okay…so maybe I am NOT supposed to see it!!

However, after my disappointment, I still enjoyed scouring the various galleries. Here are a few of the treasures that I found.

It was fun to see that some of the pieces that I adored in 2007 were still in place, like this sculpture called “Breathless”…..

And of course, I had to take a photo of the amazing Chihuly sculpture in the entryway…..

I appreciated the movement in this stone carving….

I also enjoyed the shapes of these funky teapots from the 1870’s….

Then there was this piano from 1896….

While I am a pianist, I was particularly interested in the designs of the inlays…..

I played with both of these as quilting designs and can see some possibilities there!!

I loved this statue of George Frederic Handel, carved in 1738…..

As usual, my eyes roamed freely for geometric designs, including these tiles from the 1850’s….

There were many more that had the same Islamic feel….

There were several ROOMS dedicated to pottery…..

….and I could have spent DAYS taking photos!!

Since I am currently designing quilted Mandalas (check out my YouTube playlist here…..), I was drawn to various designs that I thought might be appropriate, such as…..

…..the designs on this vase….

…or this plate…..

I have no idea why this next piece appealed to me but I certainly appreciated the modern nature of this smallish sculpture…..

Here is the information on it…..

Since many of the items found in the V&A are useful AND decorative, it made me appreciate this quote….

Even the view out of the window was inspiring. Don’t you love those geometrics….

And I spent an inordinate amount of time studying this floor grate….

Do you have any idea why????

BUT, my FAVORITE area in the V&A was the metal work exhibit…..

….and I will devote an entire upcoming post to it so STAY TUNED!!

Next weekend we will visit the “Tate Modern” and take a walk around Parliament House.

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

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