Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

A recent exhibition at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum showcased all the quilts made from the four reproduction fabric lines: Rising Sun, Cross Quilt, Bethlehem Star, and American Patch.  This exhibition also featured the quilts which inspired the reproduction fabric.  Blazing Star/Star of Bethlehem is full of indigos and cheddar, as well as Prussian Blue which makes it real eye candy. The quilt was made by a member of the Speck family c. 1860-1880. The quilt that inspired the Rising Sun fabric line, was also made by a member of the Speck family.  This quilt also uses a variation on the large main Lone Star but surrounded by blocks of more stars. The quilt is believed to have been created in 1840-1860. The Cross Quilt was made about 1880 and is a simple pattern with lots...

The Joslyn Art Museum of Omaha was the host of a quilt exhibition from the Shelburne Museum with the wonderful title, Pattern and Purpose. Even if you’ve seen these quilts before, they are wonderful examples of American art worthy of multiple views. The history of the Shelburne Museum is worthy of note too. Mrs. Electra Havemeyer Webb founded the Shelburne museum in 1947 to house her family’s collection of horse drawn carriages. However, it didn’t take her long to decide to create a “collection of collections” for “an educational project.” She began searching through New England and New York to create her collections. Size was not a barrier as she even bought steamboats, houses, stores, bridges, placing these items in the middle of her garden. I’m grateful for her amazing collection of quilts which provide a...

Although I could easily write several more blogs on the 2018 Houston Quilt Festival, this will be our last. We have too many other adventures to share with you, and I’m getting behind on the multiple antique quilt exhibitions I’ve seen lately. However, I couldn’t leave the 2018 Festival without sharing with you this special exhibition, Antique Quilts of the British Isles. It was very hard to choose which quilts to feature from this exhibit, because there were so many amazing ones. However, it is hard to ignore a quilt which has 45,000 ¼ inch hexagons. It was completed in the 1840s and exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. This quilt was on loan to the Victoria & Albert Museum for many years. One distinctive tradition in British quilts is the center medallion...

We’ve had so much to write about, I haven’t even finished your tour of the Houston Quilt Festival. However, even though the photos are from 2018, there is a little teaser about 2019 included in the blog too. This week we focus on the section, "In the American Tradition: Appliqued." Applique quilts seem to be a favorite of our readers, and while we usually focus on antiques, it is always nice to share what current quilt artists are accomplishing in the traditional style. The “Bird of Paradise” quilt by Janet Olmstead (aka Mrs. Sew n’ sew blog) is from Alberta, Canada. Be sure you check out all of the birds, squirrels and horses she included. Ginger Brant’s quilt is inspired by the Baltimore Album Quilts and more specifically by a later Civil War era quilt. She...

The Triplett Sisters’ love medallion quilts, particularly those that use chintz “panels” for the center. So, imagine our excitement when the American Quilt Study Group decided to make medallions the subject of the next quilt study. Yippee! That means that fifty members of the organization will be making medallion quilts. That means a traveling exhibit of medallion quilts will hit the road to spark the creativity of quilters across the nation with these medallion quilts inspired by historical quilts. Immediately after the announcement last fall, ideas began to emerge. Museums and private collections were searched for the best medallion quilt. Which one quilt would inspire a quilter so much that the quilter either wanted to reproduce the antique quilt or create a new quilt based on the antique quilt. Medallion panels were made using fabric created...