When Quilting Becomes Fine Art: Quilts Unlimited Takes Over View in Old Forge
Handmade quilt.
There is something particularly Adirondack about taking a practical object and turning it into something beautiful.
Boats, baskets, furniture and buildings have long occupied that territory here. Quilts belong in the conversation, too.
This fall, Quilts Unlimited at View Arts Center in Old Forge makes the case rather convincingly. Running October 2 through November 28, 2026, the national juried quilt exhibition brings traditional quilting and contemporary fiber art together in the western Adirondacks, showcasing work selected for its design, creativity and technical skill.
And this year, the story is bigger than one exhibition.
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Quilting gets its moment in the Adirondacks.
Quilts Unlimited has become the centerpiece of what amounts to a fall celebration of fiber arts at View. Alongside the main juried exhibition, visitors can see work from the North Country Quilting Guild and a separate Wearable Art exhibition that moves fiber art quite literally off the wall.
That makes Old Forge an intriguing destination this fall for quilters, textile artists and crafters who appreciate the difference between something handmade and something well made.
The distinction matters.
A quilt can be admired from across a gallery for its color and composition, then become something entirely different up close. Stitching emerges. Piecing reveals itself. Small decisions about fabric, texture and construction begin to explain how an artist got from an idea to the finished work.
Traditional quilts sit within that conversation, but so do contemporary art quilts that push well beyond familiar blocks and patterns. Quilts Unlimited treats the medium as exactly that: a medium.
This is more than a quilt show in Old Forge.
The exhibition's opening weekend makes the point.
Following the October 2 Fall Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony, View hosts a Quilts Unlimited Breakfast & Lecture on Saturday, October 3, from 10 am – noon. Quilters, collectors and interested visitors can gather over coffee and quiche before Juror of Awards Pat Harrison presents "Coloring Your Quilts," exploring how colors found in the natural world can inspire quilt design.
That subject feels especially appropriate in the Adirondacks in October, when nature is hardly subtle about its palette.
The morning concludes with a guided tour of Quilts Unlimited led by Claire Oehler. Oehler is also the focus of a Members' Showcase at View this fall celebrating decades of her work in quilting; a separate Meet the Artist reception is scheduled for October 23.
Together, these programs turn the exhibition from something visitors simply look at into an opportunity to understand how quilters think about color, technique and design.
Why fiber arts feel at home here.
The Adirondacks have always had a complicated relationship with craft. Practicality came first: objects had jobs to do. But utility and beauty have never been mutually exclusive here.
That sensibility helps explain why Quilts Unlimited feels less like a specialty exhibition dropped into Old Forge and more like an extension of the region's creative culture.
View itself grew from similarly modest roots. The organization traces its beginnings to an art show Miriam Kashiwa staged on her Old Forge lawn in 1951. Seventy-five years later, the institution has evolved into a year-round cultural center for exhibitions, performances, classes and community programs.
Its longevity also challenges a stubborn idea about Adirondack travel: that the interesting things happen primarily outside.
Certainly, visitors come to Old Forge for the Fulton Chain, trails, snow, foliage and other outdoor pursuits. But institutions such as View offer another reason to make the trip—and, importantly, another reason to visit when the weather is less cooperative, or the summer crowds have disappeared.
How View became an Adirondack arts destination.
Long before Quilts Unlimited filled its galleries, View Arts Center began with an art show on Miriam Kashiwa’s Old Forge lawn in 1951. In this ADK Talks conversation, Jane and Steve sit down with Bernadette “Bernie” Sunderland, Executive Director of View, and Travis Kiefer, Director of Operations, who share the story of the organization’s 75-year evolution and how View became a year-round home for visual arts, performing arts and creative programs in the Adirondacks.
That history helps put exhibitions like Quilts Unlimited in context: View isn’t simply hosting an art show in Old Forge; it is continuing a creative tradition that has been growing in this Adirondack community for three-quarters of a century.
ADK Taste recommendations.
Serious quilters should consider making more than a casual gallery stop of this one. The October 3 breakfast, lecture and guided tour offer the richest opportunity to get behind the finished work, although advance registration is required for that program.
For everyone else, slow down. A quilt that works from 15 feet away may reveal its most interesting choices from 15 inches. Walk the exhibition once for visual impact, then circle back to the pieces that demanded a second look.
Quilts Unlimited also runs long enough to fit into several different Old Forge trips. After Columbus Day, View's published fall/winter gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 am – 4 pm; the center is closed Sunday. General admission is currently $10 for nonmembers and free for members, children under 18 and active military with ID. Visitors should confirm current hours and admission with View before traveling.
Who should put this on the fall calendar.
Quilters are the obvious audience, particularly those interested in seeing how traditional techniques coexist with contemporary approaches.
Fiber artists, sewists and crafters should find plenty to examine as well, especially with Wearable Art and the North Country Quilting Guild exhibition running concurrently.
But expertise isn't required.
Someone who cannot identify a long-arm quilting machine from a lawn mower can still appreciate pattern, color, precision and imagination. That's part of the pleasure of a strong craft exhibition: knowing how something was made adds another layer, but the work has to capture attention first.
ADK Taste perspective.
The Adirondacks are often marketed through what nature created here. Events like Quilts Unlimited offer a useful counterpoint: this region is also shaped by what people make.
In a year when View is celebrating 75 years in Old Forge, an exhibition centered on painstaking work, accumulated skill, and the ability to make something new from an old tradition seems particularly apt.
The mountains aren't going anywhere. Neither, apparently, is the impulse to make beautiful things within them.
Quilts Unlimited runs October 2 – November 28, 2026, at View Arts Center, 3273 State Route 28 in Old Forge. Check View's current schedule before visiting.
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