Shapeshifters inaugurates the New Views exhibition series in which quilts collected over the last 20 years will be exhibited at the International Quilt Museum for the first time. Made between 1830 and 1930, the quilts in Shapeshifters rely primarily on appliqué for their lively effects. All are exemplars of the rich and wide-ranging tradition of American quiltmaking, and the visual and material culture in which it developed. Different approaches to drawing and layering demonstrate inventive uses of form and fabric, the animation of negative space, the deployment of various types of symmetry (translation, reflection, rotation, etc.), and ultimately, the features that make a particular design or quilt “original” instead of conventional. Examples include quilts made from wool as well as cotton, embroidered pieces, and several quilts with unusual and delightful depictions of the animal kingdom.

More than half of the quilts in New Views are from the Robert and Ardis James Collection, donated in large groups over a ten year period. The gift of more than 1000 quilts included classic American traditional quilts as well as studio art and international quilts. A rare Gazelle quilt, made by artist Bertha Stenge of Chicago in circa 1933, was also a donation. The donor, Lisa Geneson, received the quilt as a gift from her grandmother, Berthe Balson, who purchased it from the Chicago Art Institute. Stenge’s original quilts were well recognized during her lifetime: the Chicago Daily News dubbed her "Chicago's Quilting Queen." 

Other Shapeshifters quilts were donated by individuals, including an inscribed quilt from Nebraskan Donna Snyder that appears to be a fundraiser for the Harmony Rebekah Lodge No. 515, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Munden, Kansas. Snyder’s grandparents’ and mother’s names are included among those on the edges of the quilt.