San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

The shows over the past couple of years have been great quality. Was there yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the shows, the textures, the colors, the talent.

Wonderful place for a drop in visit while in San Jose because you never know what you’ll find about so many new ways to make art. I have seen things made from paper, wire, neckties, and fabrics from traditional quilting cotton to organza. The engineering of so much of this art is fascinating… how people creature structure and many 3D objects from cloth and fiber. I saw a giant wall size riff on a traditional stitched sampler but this piece listed ways people waste time at work. So the Museum’s exhibits have very contemporary themes and they also show traditional quilts, modern Art Quilts and wearable art.
The Museum is just a few minutes walk from The Tech and from the Convention Center. And plenty of parking under the 280 freeway; just be sure to look for the single pay station. The Museum itself is fairly priced ($ 8) and easy to visit; you can get up close to see the stitches or stand back and admire the concept for lots of different kinds of art… BTW, not all textiles and quilts hang on the wall or the bed these days. The piece made from neckties was a tent and there are bowls, flags and hats that I have seen there. I drove about an hour to get here and it is well worth seeing the various exhibits if you like color, texture, tradition or innovation

I think this Museum is so amazing that I have volunteered my time to be on it’s Board for the past 5 years. As the only textile museum in the Bay Area, it is a invaluable resource – through this Museum we are able to see and appreciate quilts, weavings, and fiber art of all kinds from the historical to the modern – the variety and range is impressive. I love being able to see all kinds of fiber art up close and learn more about the artists who make such extraordinary work.
I’ve been a quilter for over 30 years and I still learn new things when I attend the programs here. And I love the unique items in the Museum store and find it to be a great place to buy gifts of all kinds.
New exhibits are presented throughout the year so there’s always a reason to come back. Make a day of it and enjoy the nearby museums and galleries and grab something to eat – new restaurants are opening all the time within a few blocks.

Surprisingly good. I got dragged her by my wife during our staycation and I expected it to be a horrible bore. I expected to see a bunch of dowdy quilts made by the nuns where my parents used to work, but in fact these were actually impressive works of art that could be legitimately be displayed at conventional art museums. Of particular interest was the room with clothing made from salvaged materials, with the accompanying display which depressingly lays out the cost — human and environmental — that goes into the production of clothing. I told my wife, «ha! you shouldn’t have made me throw out those holey socks and torn up underwear or my old Metallica t-​shirt».
It’s worth a visit. Look for the free ticket opportunities through your public library, as the admission price seemed a little steep for the size of the museum.

I would give the museum 4 stars for their exhibits and programs, but I’m only giving it one star because of the way their weekend staff was treated.
FYI if you are visiting on the weekend: last time I checked the museum had new weekend hours: Saturday and Sunday closed for lunch from 2:00pm to 2:30pm for staff meal break.
Nice to know they are making accommodations to let their weekend staff get meal breaks now. It used to be that the weekend staff (which was only 1 person not including any volunteers that may be there) worked there alone all day and could not even leave the museum to get a meal break if there were customers in the museum all throughout the day.
If you visit the museum on the weekend and you only see one person working there, ask them if they are able to take a lunch break!

What a gem of a museum! Mr Rinky and I took my mom to the original museum
about 20+ years ago. It was a teeny tiny place in a different location.
This time around we went with our friends, D, J & J.
We used our library’s Discover and Go passes and got in free.
The current exhibit features original Amish quilt and modern Amish themed quilts.
We were totally blown away by the details and craftsmanship, especially the older quilts – some over 100 years old. (See my pix)
The space is great – roomy and well laid out.
I can’t wait to see future exhibits here!
Sweet gift shop with quilt bookmarks for 25 cents to books, scarves, earrings, necklaces, and quilts that cost a bit more than 25 cents.
The staff is friendly and welcoming.
Street parking was easy – what more can one ask for?

That was a wonderful 2 hours well spent. Quilts are incredible and the time went quickly when you read every description of the art pieces. Spent time in thought in amazement of the talent of artists and their variety of expressions of joy, pain, laughter and just plain artist talent.

Haha, I admit, there’s a whole bunch of old ladies who come here, and I got a bunch of funny looks.
This has been in all the travel brochures and I’ve been finding a right time to visit for awhile now.
I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve never seen quilts and textiles as anything more than just for their practical use before I came. They have some gorgeous pieces here, and the exhibits change pretty frequently.
Some of the garments they have on display, I would buy!
First Friday of the month is FREE and there’s checkin offer for a nice bag which is REALLY useful!
Will definitely be back!

Came here as part of a Unilocal art walk. It is a small museum, but they had some interesting things to look at, such as quilts & costumes from around the world. They also had a hands-​on station, where you could put together your own patchwork square to contribute to their prayer blanket for victims of a natural disaster overseas. While you were making the square, you were supposed to think positive and healing thoughts to send their way. They also had a separate room where you could make shadow puppets. I entered a raffle they had for a really beautiful quilt with a galaxy pattern– & actually won! I never win games of chance! They were really great about contacting me and holding it until I could pick it up.

The Museum staff is very friendly and helpful. The exhibits are not always traditional. I remember last month they had a quilt that looked like a giant tortilla! It’s fun to see the artists use quilts to express themselves.
On South First Fridays of each month, admission is free and the
team holds a crafting event that night. They would like you to RSVP by EventBrite, but they will let you in if you ask. You can see the craft items in the pictures that I posted. The sign up page is linked in the calendar section of the website.

Where the past and future come together.
See very cool exhibits while engaging in fun activities with fun people. Truly a treasure, this museum.
Easily accessed and in close proximity to other great places to eat and see.
Enjoy!

An interesting place showing quilts/​textile arts from around the world.

Very thorough selection of historic and modern quilts! I went here for a Unilocal Arthouse preview and the staff were nice and friendly too.

I’ve visited The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles a few times, most recently to see the Quilt National Show. There are several galleries filled with exhibits that are always fascinating and educational to learn about cultures and lifestyles as they relate to textiles and quilts.
Staff are very welcoming and I believe all ages would enjoy a visit. The gift store is full of unique items from local artisans at reasonable prices. If you’re going to be in San Jose, I found this Museum to be one of the more interesting places to visit in the city.

My friend took me here recently. I’m not really a fan of textiles, but I do like to learn about other cultures. I was impressed by the place. The displays where really interesting, and unique like you’d find in a larger national museum. I enjoyed the visit and would go back to see new exibits.

Really amazing «sculptural knitting» exhibit on until August 7. So creative! If you go to this museum with an open mind, you’ll be rewarded with a memorable visual treat.

My mother in law is a quilter. When she visited us, I took her to this quilt museum. It’s a small museum with some quilt works & clothings. I enjoyed it though I felt that i needed to more works after driving all the way down herr. Mother in law seemed to enjoy the ones at the museum shop & some quilting works in the lady’s room :)
If we are in the area, I would visit again to see if they have more works but I wouldn’t drive all the way down to San Jose just to visit this museum.

Went to SJ Museum of Quilts & Textiles for SOFA Fri 6÷4÷10. They are having a cool show called «Hawaii’s Alfred Shaheen: Fabric to Fashion». He was a Lebanese engineer that started in 1948 w/​a dream & 4 seamstresses.
HE built his own equipment, created own dyes, etc. He was the largest Hawaiian clothing manufacturer from the 50s — 70s.
NO Photos allowed because it’s all copyrighted. They had a wall w/​21 Hawaiian shirts, lots of Hawaiian dresses, fabrics hanging on the wall too.
Another room had Hawaiian quilts on the wall.
Separate bathrooms available.
There were some Hawaiian dancers performing out front their door. Pretty cool.
I enjoyed it.

While I had been excited to check this place out I was a little worried the group with me wouldn’t appreciate it as much as I wanted them too. That said, they spent a fair amount of time in the exhibit and actually looked through everything.
A lot of the items in here just baffle my mind when it comes to how they were made and the amount of thought and planning that has to go into making patterns or images. The place also makes you fight the urge to touch them, as I really wanted to touch them, but I couldn’t.

The current exhibition, ‘Changing Landscape: Contemporary Chinese Fiber Art’, is pretty rad. After walking around the museum for a bit I said to my friend, «I usually don’t like this museum, but this show is pretty cool. Maybe it’s because there aren’t any quilts?
Supposedly it’s the first Chinese fiber art show ever in the U.S. I find that hard to believe especially considering Chinese people live in the U.S.
The cookies were really good at the opening reception! Oatmeal, double chocolate, and chocolate chip. They tend to have some of the best free refreshments.

I had been wanting to go to this museum for quite awhile, because I am a quilter and had run across their website and heard about them for years. yesterday, I grabbed up Mom and we drove up. After an initial problem in finding the museum, we fed the parking meter in front and ambled inside for a look.
The bored cashier was eager enough to take our 6.50 admission price (5.00 for seniors), but mostly she and her counterpart in the museum store were bored and more bored. I guess that this might be because Mom and I were the only people in the museum. It was nice to have the museum to ourselves.
Down one hallway and around the walls of the first room on the left were 15 quilts of Dorothy Vance, a quilter from Berkeley who had an eye for both stitchery, political humor and quilting. You could track her progress from the early quilts made for children or grandchildren to the politcial satire quilts such as «Call Me Doctor». I love the Quilt titled «People of the Cloth» which included ministers and such with a small, but pithy saying of each. What was amazing was the breadth of ministers included from St. Barnabas to the minister from the Simpsons. It’s easy to see how this quilt won a third prize at the 2004 Marin Quilt & Needle Arts Show.
Through the double doors, in two gallery spaces was the exhibit, «Beyond Knitting: Uncharted Stitches». This was an exhibit of extreme knitting, using all sorts of materials (wire, plastic bags, felt, yarn) to express all sorts of themes (rage against the war, powerlessness, hopefulness, sexism). This is a very powerful exhibit, but it not for the squeamish. One of my favorite pieces was by Blanka Sperkova, «Madonna of the New Age» which was a large metal knitted woman, suspended in air. Because she is somewhat transparent, you can see that she is pregnant.
The last large gallery space held an exhibit of Batiks and figures called, «In Javanese Moonlight: Sha Sha Higby». The Batiks were very fine and the figures were absolutely stunning.
We were given on program when we walked in and reading it gave us more information and background behind the pieces. It’s too bad there weren’t more places to sit and read the program. I see now that I should have returned the program when we left.
The museum gift store was disappointing. Usually I like to buy a catalog of the exhibits, because I like to revisit the visuals in my mind. If i can’t find a catalog, I like to buy some postcards. The museum didn’t have either for sale. The did have handcrafted quilts and beads and nice things, but … we both left without buying anything.
On the way out, we went into an alcove and discovered the Hausner Coral Reef exhibit made by the Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School seventh grade class. Not only was it beautiful, but it was accompnied by a notebook of impressive research by the students. I loved the fact that they used art, hands, mind, research, and electronic publishing to pull together their knowledge and concern about the coral reefs. One part of the «reef» (made entirely of yarn) was vibrant and living, while another part was white on white or dying and dead. For a little more information and small photos of the Coral Reef:
So, let’s recap.
I really liked the exhibits, but I was disappointed by the museum’s size (more, I wanted MORE!!), and I wanted more quilts, of course. I loved the Coral Reef, but wasn’t crazy about the museum store or it’s employees. I thought the museum guide was helpful, but wanted more places to sit and read it. Will I come back? Maybe to see a different set of exhibits!

Yeah it feels a little weird here but the coral reef is really cool! Like super cool. We spent half of our time here looking at the reef.
I accidentally touched a piece before I saw the «No touching» sign.
The rest of the museum is part folk art (special exhibition), part political forum (half of the pieces were made by the one of the museum’s curators), and part mish mash.
The $ 6.50 admission fee is a tad steep for the less than 500 square feet of «gallery» space.