Pauline Burbridge trained at St. Martins Art College in London, in the early 1970s, studying fashion and textiles. After working briefly as a garment designer, she started making quilts (in 1975 and 1976). For Pauline, this was such a great thing to be able to work very directly with fabric and color in a pure way and on a large scale. She slowly became aware of others, who were interested in quiltmaking, and her career grew alongside the growth of the contemporary quilt.

She has exhibited in many corners of the world, including, Japan, Australia and the USA, and her work has been purchased by many Museums in the UK (where she lives). Major collections in the USA and the UK with her art quilts include the collection of John M Walsh III, the International Quilt Study Center Museum (IQSCM) in Nebraska, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Whitworth Art Gallery.

Pauline has had many solo exhibitions, including the ones in more recent years –

• 2004 and 2005, QUILTWORKS – Visions of the Natural World (touring to four Museum venues), and three venues with the Knitting & Stitching Shows in London, Harrogate, and Dublin.
• 2012, PB RETRO: Interpretations in Cloth, A Major Retrospective exhibition organized by the Festival of Quilts, showing at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, and then touring to the Quilt Museum in York.

Currently, Pauline is working towards another one-person exhibition which will be held at the Bowes Museum (www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk) in Co Durham (beginning on 28 November 2015) and touring to the Ruthin Craft Centre (www.ruthincraftcentre.org.uk) in North Wales (starting on 23 April 2016). After that, a show of her work is planned at the IQSCM (www.quiltstudy.org) in Nebraska, USA, in October 2016.

Pauline’s work is included in many publications, including her own books, the most recent being Quilt Studio (published in 2000 by The Quilt Digest Press, now part of McGraw-Hill); Portfolio Collection Pauline Burbidge (published in 2004 by Telos Art Publishing); Pauline Burbidge – Works Between 1975 & 2012 (published in 2012 by Twistedthread); andOPEN STUDIO – Allanbank Mill Steading, by Pauline Burbidge & Charlie Poulsen (2014).

Pauline runs an annual open studio exhibition (the first weekend of August), together with her husband, the sculptor Charles Poulsen, and a guest artist.

Pauline is represented on the Art of the Quilt website run by Robert Shaw to promote contemporary quilts.

She is very happy to be using the HQ Avanté® quilting machine. She love to draw and she draws with her stitching line; her “thing” is to work free-hand on her quilts. It has transformed her work in recent years and opened up a whole new way of working.

www.paulineburbidge-quilts.com