Historic Treasure of the Week - June 16, 1991
By Joan Brunskill
Vigo County Historical Society
Historic Treasure of the Week - June 16, 1991
By Joan Brunskill
Vigo County Historical Society
Quilt renaissance gaining momentum
New York--There were at least 5,000 quilts on show this year at the Great American Quilt Festival 3. And some of them are coming to Indiana next month.
Some 20,000 people paid $10 each to look and learn during the five-day festival sponsored by the American Museum of Folk Art. The quilts took the hard edges off the walls of a cavernous ocean liner pier on the Hudson River.
Old quilts, new quilts, quilts to look at, quilts to buy. Variously cozy or grand, whimsical or somber, spangled or austere. Quilts in all colors, from across the nation and beyond.
The overall theme, "Discover America," elicited a blaze of patriotic red, white and blue pieces.
"The quilt renaissance started in the ‘60s," said Karla Friedlich, program chairman for the festival and staff member of the American Museum of Folk Art, "and it has been gathering momentum ever since."
Quilting can be divided into traditional and non-traditional--or functional and art quilts. From there, results are as varied as the quilters.
The American Quilter’s Society says there’s no reliable estimate of just how many million Americans are quilting these days, but they include men and children. (The society recently opened a museum of quilting in Paducah, Ky.)
The winning quilt exhibition’s national tour includes the Minnestrista Cultural Center, Muncie, Ind., July 1-Aug. 26; Memorial Hall Museum, Deerfield, Mass., Sept. 30-Nov. 25; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, Dec. 16-Feb. 10, 1992; the Portsmouth Community Arts Center, Portsmouth, Va., March 2-April 27, 1992; Museum of Textile History, North Andover, Mass., Oct. 19-Dec. 14, 1992.
The two quilts that are this week’s historical treasure will be displayed at the "Quilts Along the Wabash" show at the YWCA in Fairbanks Park. The quilt shown right, made sometime between 1875 and 1900, is the Dresden Plate pattern. Legend is that the pattern was designed by women who migrated to the West. They had to leave their beautiful Dresden China behind so they created a quilt pattern to remind them of it. The sawtooth pattern quilt pictured left was donated t the Historical Museum by Ada Hodge. It was made by her great-great-grandmother, Mrs. Lucas (Hannah Morris) Nebeher (1784-1841).
The quilt show at the YWCA is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. A special display of Crazy quilts will be featured through July 7 at the museum.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.