YORK Art Gallery turns the focus on textile in its first exhibition of 2003.

Making Journeys brings together for the first time three innovative quilt makers from Germany and Scotland: Inge Hueber, Anne Keith and Veronica Togneri.

The exhibition presents 36 quilts and seeks to illustrate the development of each textile artist's craft.

Each has her own style but all share a common interest in the manipulation of natural fabrics and the exploration of colour and strong execution of graphic design.

Hueber works in Germany, a country with no history of quilt making, so she is inspired more by the artistic designs of the Bauhaus than the traditions of American or British quilt making. Using strips and stripes of vibrant, home-dyed, coloured fabrics, her compositions are rhythmical.

Keith, from Edinburgh, employs a more subtle palette, and through layers of textures, colour and stitching, she presents compositions in abstract form inspired by the structures and play of light on architecture and the landscape.

Togneri, based in Culloden, specialises in traditional British patchwork in which geometric pieces of cloth are hand-sewn edge to edge to produce elaborate and complex designs.

Making Journeys runs until March 2 and admission to York Art Gallery, in Exhibition Square, is free. Opening hours are 10am to 5pm daily.

Updated: 10:04 Friday, January 17, 2003