My Merry Month of May Part One

Janet at the beginning of the exhibit

I am not really sure I could have fit more fun into the month of May. I am so lucky.

I started the month spending a couple days with Australians Janet O'Dell, and Denise Reynolds here in Colorado. Janet was curator of the 'Australia Uncovered' exhibit at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. Denise has a quilt in the exhibit. I took them on some quilting adventures all around the area. I hope they had as much fun as I did.

Denise with the back of her quilt, "Under Flynn's Wings",
 it was hung for viewing on both sides.
It was very popular!

Being at the exhibit, Janet and Denise were able to talk to guests about the quilts. How surprised visitors were when they learned the curator and one of the quilt makers was there to speak with them - - all the way from Australia.

This is one of those posts where 100 photos would not be enough...

Denise is posing here with the front of her quilt, "Under Flynn's Wings".  Her quilt was made with mostly Australian themed fabrics and tells the story of The Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Notice how she varied the fabric colors by the climate of Australian, surrounded by the beautiful blue water.

The signs in the museum provided visitors with a country map of Australian to refer to as they viewed the quilts.

The museum has a QR code system that offers audio to visitors. Exhibits can record audio and tell more about their quilts than the exhibit tags can. The Australian accents are a very popular as visitors view the quilts and get a real 'down under' feeling.

Mary Hutchins, from Victoria is a stitch counter.
Her quilt has 6,063 hexagons.
At 120 hand stitches per hexagon she estimates the quilt has
727, 560 stitches.


Sisterly Love
82" x 100"
Inspired by a quilt in Annette Gero's book, "Fabric of Society".


The original circa 1850 coverlet was made in England by Mary Chubb Tolman for her brother, James Chubb Tolman who resided in Hobart Town, Van Diemans Land.

The quilt is hand quilt using the stab stitch method.

The hand quilting is so uniform I initially mistook it for machine stitching.

Very beautiful!!

Another hexagon quilt in the exhibit is
Eleanor Jean
By Linda White, Victoria
76"
It is made of 22,500 quarter inch hexagons.
All hand sewn.
The quilt was quilted using anchoring stitches spread evenly over the quilt.
The quilt is named after Linda's Maternal grandmother. This is her second hexagon quilt because she needed one for each daughter.

This quilt had visitors enthralled.
Margaret Rolfe - Quiltmaker
98" x 84"
Jenny Bowker, Australian Capital Territory

There is all kinds of uniquely Australian flora and fauna are included in the quilt as well as the likeness of famed quilter, Margaret Rolfe.





I left Janet and Denise in capable hands for more quilting adventures and I flew to Minnesota.

Mother's Day was extra special this year because it was graduation weekend at The University of Minnesota.
The Graduate was back from Tanzania and decided to partake in the commencement ceremony.

Graduating meant it was time to give him the THE QUILT.  That wasn't his only gift, but maybe it was the best.

He loved it.
He noticed it was hand quilted.
He studied all of the carefully selected fabrics.
He has proudly showed it to his friends.

Success!

Winterthur 1808, English. By or for Joanna Southcott

I flew back from Minnesota and was home for a day - certainly long enough to repack!

Then off I went to Pennsylvania with friends.

We had a rendezvous at the Philly airport and off we went.

The first couple days were for shopping; fabric, antiques, then antiques and fabric...
No incriminating photos of the first two days are available.

Winterthur - Probably Pennsylvania 1800-1825

We attended Penn's Dry Goods Market. Two more days filled with excellent lectures and more shopping.  I was too busy to take photos there.

We did go to UPS and pack and ship some treasures home. More to come on that.

Then we went to The Winterthur Museum. in Delaware.

At Winterthur we took the garden tour. I was so 'in the moment' I forgot to take garden photos.
I think that's a good thing.

Once inside, the special exhibits at Winterthur were, "Made in the Americas' and 'Embroidery, The Language of Art'.


The in process embroidery piece is important in understanding their processes in centuries past.

Winterthur

The embroidery was so inspiring.

This tambour work with lace insertion was beautiful.

The circle in this piece was about 3" in diameter.

Winterthur

There were more quilts on exhibit.

The crewel embroidery on this example provided wonderful color and texture.

After a great day at Winterthur we had a wonderful meal an relived some of our adventures and proposed some future ones.

We flew home the next morning.




Working on the one day of rest plan, guess what I did the following day?
Stay tuned for Part Two!
Have a great week,
Dawn