19 Stars - Indiana Quilt Exhibit

Starry Knight by Ellen Anne Eddy

My quilt friend Ellen Anne Eddy posted an article about a new quilt show at the Indiana State Museum.

It's called "19 Stars: Quilts of Indiana's Past and Present", celebrating the state's upcoming 200th birthday.  Indiana was the 19th state to join the Union, and the Indiana flag features 19 stars.  So the museum is showing 19 antique quilts and 19 contemporary quilts from their collection, all with starry designs.  I love the idea of juxtaposing the old and new quilts to celebrate the history of the state.

Here are two video clips about the show.  The second one features Ellen's quilt, "Starry Knight".
historical quilts
contemporary quilts

I've always found themed exhibits and books the most fun.  They really bring out the variety and excitement of all the approaches to quiltmaking.

I first discovered how cool these shows can be in the 1986 book All Flags Flying.  It includes the 52 prize-winning quits from the Great American Quilt Contest "Expressions of Liberty" celebrating the Statue of Liberty's 100th birthday.  Some are very literal, some are very abstract.  My favorite happens to be the winner from my home state of Illinois, made by Sidney Allee Miller.  It's called "Freedom's Children," and is 72" square. 

(Photo credit, All Flags Flying)

The concept is unique and the execution is both folksy and technically amazing, a great combo! 

I Love a Good Coincidence

Remember this sweet baby quilt I posted about a couple of months ago?

Well, look what I found at an estate sale this weekend!

I think I squeaked out loud when I found it....

I don't have any intention of making this quilt, but somehow just had to buy the pattern anyway!  Really, how could I not?

And now, I can add the pattern name and info to the quilt's story:

Snowball

Such a lovely Amish quilt!  Here's a quilt with all the criteria needed to satisfy any Amish quilt collectors:

Colors are bold.  It is wool.  Piecing is precise.  Quilting is prominent.  Stitches are teensy.

It is quite large, and is backed with a grey striped flannel.

Magic Vine - Quilting Progress

I've spent a few weeks with relaxing sewing while watching fun things on Netflix, a very nice "spring break."

One project that's benefited is the vintage Magic Vine quilt top that I am finishing.  I started the quilting 25+ years ago!  I've only worked on it now and then, when I go someplace to demonstrate hand quilting.  After its most recent excursion last November, I decided to push forward and finally finish it.

My First Quilt - The Fabrics

Here are some photos of the fabrics in the first quilt I ever made.  You can find the story of making the quilt in the previous post.

Most of the fabrics are from the 1960s, and some are from the 70s.  Scraps are from clothing my mom and I made, the constant stream of aprons and kitchen curtains my mom made for the south-facing window, and scraps I inherited from a good friend's family scrap pile.

I am reminded of a quilt that a student brought to one of the first quilt classes I ever taught.  It was a simple 9-patch quilt, made in the 1870s or so by a 13-year old girl as I recall.  There was a map of the quilt with details of every fabric - Aunt So-and-So's dress, and so on.  One of the fabrics had this story:  The girl and her sister had been dressed in their brand new best dresses for an event, and then wandered off and did some strawberry picking.  The result, as you might expect, was strawberry juice stains that wouldn't wash out.  The mom made the girl put those stained patches in her quilt, as a reminder of the lesson learned!

My First Quilt - The Story

As a child, I learned to sew clothes from my mom.  We kept all the scraps in a cardboard box near the sewing machine on the bottom shelf, and she told me we would make a quilt someday.  She even collected some Aunt Martha quilt pattern pamphlets.

 

That's as far as she and I ever got, but the "someday" kept echoing in my head.  After college, while doing data entry on a primatology project, I took a little 6-week intro to quilting class.  I made a pillow. I was needing something colorful and handy to entertain myself while "waiting" for the huge "mainframe" computer to return my "output".  Ancient concepts now.  The year was 1978.

American History Quilt, 1937

I came across this wonderful quilt in my surfing today.

It was made and signed in 1937 by Camille Nixdorf Phelan.  There is a map of the US as it was in 1937: 48 states.  Landmarks and personalities are embroidered in the states.  The map is surrounded by a further 150 portraits of famous people - including Presidents, First Ladies, and herself as quiltmaker, 50 further landmarks, maps of 4 US territories.

Camille was born in 1882 in Missouri, and moved to Oklahoma after her marriage in 1900.  She became famous for her Oklahoma Historical Quilt that was displayed at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.  Here's a bit about that quilt in her own words (from the Oklahoma Historical Society site, link just previous):

"Twenty 100-yard spools of thread were used.  Every stitch of the embroidering is my own work and I spent all my spare time for four years in actual construction. Two years were spent in research work before I began the quilt."

Shortly after her success with Oklahoma history, she embarked on creating the America quilt.  It was documented, but lost, and finally resurfaced in the 1980s.

A description is at Rare Book Hub.  A further description, bio of the quiltmaker, and detail photos are in a Bidsquare listing, where the quilt was recently sold by Cowan Auctions for $19,200.

Oklahoma Historical Society photo