My Visit With Jane Stickle

(photo-heavy post)

(click on photos for a larger view)

Last weekend, my husband and I made a trip up to Bennington, VT to this place...

...to see THIS!....

Jane Stickle's 150-year-old original quilt on display...

The photos are grainy and not very bright, but the quilt is displayed in a very dimly-lit room, so photos with a point-and-shoot camera (and no flash allowed) are not the best. The room is actually dark most of the time and the light only turns on when someone is in the room. And as you can see, the light is not evenly distributed over the quilt.

But it's still a magnificent thing to see and because it's not displayed in a glass case, the museum visitor can get quite close to the quilt. I'm amazed that they have it so close that people can even touch it (but they wouldn't dare!).

Although the fabrics are not very bright, they are actually brighter than I expected. Photos in books and on the computer screen are not quite as vivid as in real life. But then, "vivid" is a very relative term here.

I love the fussy-cutting of the striped fabric below...

I took this next photo from the side, hoping to give an idea of how thin the quilt is. It almost looks like there is no batting or backing. The quilt doesn't look worn (at least not on the front), but I'm sure it's in very delicate condition.

The standard "yes, I was there in person" shot...

If you're able to zoom in on your computer screen, you should be able to read the following few photos. Basically, they say that the museum recently learned that Jane was bedridden at the time she made the quilt (she made it to pass the time) and that in the 1863 Bennington Agricultural Fair, Jane won a $2 prize ($40 in today's value) for a pieced quilt (it doesn't specify what the quilt looked like, but it's assumed that it was this one, since she made it in 1863).

The museum also recently discovered a watercolor painting by Jane, which was also on display...

The quilt is only on display for about six weeks every year, so if you're anywhere near Bennington, Vermont, I highly recommend you make a trip to the Bennington Museum to see it in person.

One more thing checked off my bucket list!

Back From Being AWOL

I just got back from a road trip. Took lots of pictures.  I don't have the time or energy to write a lot about the trip right now, so I'll just leave you with a few photos showing some of the places where I was...

More  to come in an upcoming post...but right now I'm too pooped to post!

Wine and Art in Wellsboro

If you're anywhere near Wellsboro, PA tomorrow (Saturday, September 21st), you may want to go to the Wellsboro Wine and Art Tour. Reservations are suggested, but if it's like last year, people signed up at the last minute at the Chamber of Commerce building at the corner of Main Street and Central Avenue. There will be wine tasting at 12 different venues around town, and each place is also featuring a local artist, author, or musician. This year, the members of my art challenge group are delighted to be the featured artists at the Penn Wells Hotel, right on Main Street. You can taste wine and see some of our fiber art pieces on display. Included in the price (I believe it's $15 per person) is a wine glass to remind you of your day.

The above photo shows the glass from last year's tour...(the part that's out of focus is a picture of the Wynken, Blynken, and Nod statue on the town green). I believe this year's glass features a gaslight...something that Wellsboro is known for...

So come have some wine and enjoy the art!

Opens Today!

Last week, I shipped my Jane Stickle quilt off to my blogging friend Jackie of Canton Village Quilt Works for the "Flights and Fantasies Quilt Show" at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT.

The show is open Sep 16th (that's today!) through Sep 22nd. If you're anywhere near Hartford, CT, you should take some time to see the show. It sounds like it will be wonderful!

Thanks to Jackie for organizing the show and for asking me to submit my quilt!

Found Treasure?

 A couple of days ago, I was sewing with some friends and we were discussing a floral nine-patch block exchange that members of my guild had participated in a while back (more than five years ago!). Some of us have made our blocks into final projects and some (mainly me) had completely forgotten about them. So, when I came home, I went through some cabinets in my quilting studio and found these...

This is the fabric that I used for my blocks...

I have about a yard of this left, along with some of the white-on-white print that I used in my blocks, so I'll probably use it with the blocks. I'm not sure of a design yet, but the one thing I'm sure of is that I will not be putting this project away (and will not start a different quilt top) until they're sewn together.

What's hiding in your quilting studio?

OK, I Lied

Well, maybe I just changed my mind...

I know that in my last post I said that I was going to do more straight-line grid quilting on some tops that are waiting to be quilted, but when I got this two-year old (!) top loaded on my frame, I decided to do a wavy grid instead. I'll post a photo of the whole quilt once it's bound, but in the meantime, you can see another one of my quilts with a similar style of quilting on my post here.

New Favorite

I think straight-line grid quilting is my new favorite way to quilt some of my quilt tops. Yes, it takes a bit longer than just meandering, but I'm loving the look! I wish I had known about channel locks for my HQ16 years ago.

Some of my quilt tops that have piled up waiting to be quilted will probably get quilted with something like this. All I have to figure out now is the thread color for them! Decision, decisions.

Art + Quilt

I recently visited the town of Hammondsport in the Finger Lakes Region of NY to deliver some quilts for an upcoming quilt show at the Glenn Curtiss Museum. Outside of the local quilt shop, Lake Country Patchwork, was one of the artists' palettes that are part of Hammondsport's Summer Art Tour. There are large painted palettes all over town, and this was an appropriate one to have outside of the quilt shop. These will all be up for auction this weekend to raise money for the local arts.

Too Many Projects

This is just a sneak peek at a small project I'm working on. It's something that I signed up for a few months ago, but just now getting around to working on. I'm afraid it isn't going to be very big and isn't going to use up too much of my stash!