To be a bit cliché, this shoemaker is a professional Web Developer and her child is this blog, but it was past time to launch what I have of a new design. All the content is still here, everything else is a work in progress (kind of like most of my sewing projects)!
It’s been three years since I finished the War of 1812 challenge quilt, and it’s still traveling around as part of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail 1812 Quilt Challenge traveling show! This winter, it spent time in Baton Rouge, and is now on display in the Classroom Gallery at the New England Quilt Museum through June 28.
Some of the quilts hanging in the West Baton Rouge Museum, including mine on the far left. Photo courtesy Lynette Lundy-Beck
I never would have guessed I’d be saying “one of my quilts is hanging at NEQM!” when I first started working on this one in 2011.
It’s been a while since we’ve been in Lowell, but if we make it back there to see the 1812 quilts hanging, I hope to stop at the American Textile History Museum as well. I visited Shelburne Museum multiple times when it was hosting the ATHM’s traveling Homefront & Battlefield exhibit. I don’t buy a lot of quilting books, because I rarely want to make the patterns they contain (although inspiration is nice), but Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War made it into my library because of the history.
The book is dense but interesting, and has highlighted a few other museums I’d like to visit due to objects from their collection being involved in the show, including the Rokeby Museum that is just down the road from home. While the quilts in the show were wonderful to see, I was facinated by a shaker-style dress that belonged to Rachel Rokeby. The construction details were very interesting, including the obvious use of selvage along the skirt side seams (and pocket openings), and a very-tightly blanket-stitched hem.
We spent 10 days in April traveling from VT down to SC and back, with a chunk of time in Virginia. Between stops at Ashlawn-Highland, Montecello, and Colonial Williamsburg, I think I’m inspired to make another more traditional quilt in the coming months. I was focused more on experiences than photographs, but even floor-coverings were inspiring.
Carpet in the Governor’s Mansion, Colonial Williamsburg”Oilcloth floorcovering in the Plantation Office, Ashlawn-Highland
For now, though, I have a few more modern projects to muddle through. I haven’t sewn much this year, but I managed to put a dent in my current work in progress at the guild’s sew-in this weekend!
If you are looking for something fun to do in the Central/Northern NY area this month, consider taking a trip to Sacket’s Harbor for the Great Lakes Seaway Trail annual quilt show.
This year’s theme is “Beauty of the Byways,” allowing for a wide variety of quilts inspired by the national byways. The show will also have two traveling collections on display—one collection from the 2012 Hoffman Challenge traveling show and another from the Route 66 traveling show. There are so many quilts that they’re spreading them over four historic buildings in the village!
The show is open for two weekends: March 16–17, 2013 and March 23-34, 2013 in Sacket’s Harbor, NY.
You can learn more about the show and the Great Lakes Seaway Trail on their website and their blog.
I’m doubly excited to visit this year, because not only do I have a quilt in the show, but my little sister is visiting me and is going to go too! See you on the 16th!
I’m a bit jealous of my 1812 Quilt—it’s getting to do quite a bit of traveling over the course of the next year. It’s one of 25 of the ~130 quilts from the show that was chosen to go traveling to various shows and museums.
This coming weekend, it will be in Upper Canada Village for their Fantastic Fibres and Quilt Show weekend. I’m kicking myself for never renewing my passport/getting an enhanced license to go across the border, as UCV is a reasonable day trip for us (and I loved it when we went there before these pesky new requirements were in effect).
But, that doesn’t keep me from being intrigued by the Great Lakes Seaway call for 1812 reproduction “cot to coffin” quilts for a show in March 2012. I have a feeling I’ll be trying to make room for this in my schedule of projects soon. I have a few ideas hopping about it my head. I especially like some of the extant quilts in the V&A collection and this one from the Smithsonian:
