Exhibits and Events

*EXHIBIT Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Allentown Art Museum. In Stitches. Thirty-four quilts in an exhibit that traveled to the Tokyo Quilt Festival this year, on display though September 5th. The Log Cabin quilt to the right is from their collection. Click here for information: Allentown Art Museum

*EXHIBIT Amherst, New York
Amherst Museum. Still Crazy After All These Quilts: Victorian Crazy Quilts, quilts from the museum collection, will be up for the 2010 season. Click here for information: Amherst Museum

*EXHIBIT Athens, Ohio
Dairy Barn Art Center. Quilting Traditions: The Art of the Amish, curated by Dee Dadik and Molly Butler, features 66 quilts. Through September 6th. Click here for information: Dairy Barn

*EXHIBIT Bath, England
The American Museum in Bath. Classic American Quilts, "showing some of the more rarely seen items from its collection of 240 American quilts" will be up through October 31st. There's also a new catalog. Click here for more information: American Museum
The red and white quilt from the American Museum's collection was acquired in 1983 with the information that it was a Chalice Quilt made about 1860 by slaves for a Texas bishop. Unfortunately, that unlikely information has not been updated for their recent catalog. American quilt historians recognize this quilt as dating from 1880-1920 in a rather popular pattern published in the first half of the 20th century under the names Goblet, Water Glass and Tumbler. If the maker meant any symbolism it was likely a reference to Temperance ideals.

To help plan your British quilt trip check the Textile Hunter's blog. She focuses on textile exhibitions in Britain. Click here: Textile Hunter

*EXHIBIT Cincinnati, Ohio
Taft Museum of Art. American Elegance: Chintz Applique Quilts, 1780 - 1850 from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, including the chintz medallion below, is scheduled for August 27 - November 7, 2010. Click here for more information: Taft Museum.

*EXHIBIT Cleveland, Ohio
The Western Reserve Historical Society is showing quilts dating to the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries from their collection. Under the Covers in the Chisholm Halle Costume Wing of the society's University Circle complex will be up through October. The display also includes "furniture, decorative arts, and objects that relate to quilt design and quilt making." Click here for information about the museum: Western Reserve Historical Society

*EXHIBIT Concord, New Hampshire
New Hampshire Historical Society. Pieced Together: New Hampshire Quilts and Their Stories features "Fifty quilts, patterns, and related quilt-making objects made during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries" , through January 10, 2011. Click here for information: New Hampshire Historical Society

The chintz quilt to the right, from the International Quilt Study Group collection, is included in the exhibit at the Taft Museum in Cincinnati.

*EXHIBIT Decorah, Iowa
Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Pieces of Self: Identity and Norwegian-American Quilts ,from the museum collection,on view in Vesterheim's Main Building through March 20, 2011. Click here for information: Vesterheim

*EXHIBIT East Lansing, Michigan
Michigan State University Museum, Unpacking Collections: The Legacy of Cuesta Benberry, An African American Quilt Scholar, through December 12, 2010. See a picture of Cuesta below. The show provides "An overview of the collections of one of America's important collector/scholars ... a selection of textiles, rare books, patterns, ephemera, and samples of her personal journals, correspondence, and extensive research files." After this installation in the Heritage Gallery the exhibit will begin a national tour. Click here for information: MSU Museum.

*EXHIBIT Harrisonburg, Virginia
The Virginia Quilt Museum re-opened in February with a year-long exhibit for 2010. The Story of the Museum - One Piece at a Time features a rotating display of the collection. Click here for information: Virginia Quilt Museum

*EXHIBIT Kansas City, Missouri
The National Archives-Central Plains Region will host Partisan Pieces: Quilts of Political and Patriotic Persuasion from the collection of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, including the star quilt below right. The show is up until October 1st. Click here for information: National Archives, Kansas City.

*EXHIBIT Lancaster, Pennsylvania
The Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum is showing two rotations of an "outstanding selection of 19th through mid-20th century quilts including family quilts never before on public view." Family and Friends: Quilts and their Connections through December 31, 2010 (closed August 2-9 to change the installation.) Click here for information: Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum.

*EXHIBIT Lincoln, Nebraska
The International Quilt Study Center and Museum maintains a schedule of exhibits from their excellent collection. Click on their website to see what's current and coming. International Quilt Study Center.

South Asian Seams: Quilts from India, Pakistan, & Bangladesh, through November 7, 2010

Childhood Treasures: Doll Quilts from the Ghormley Collection, through December 12, 2010

Programs for the season include:

September 19. Lecture and book signing, "Childhood Treasures" by Merikay Waldvogel, author of the book Childhood Treasures: Doll Quilts By and For Children.
September 28. Tuesday Talk, "Ups and Downs in Quilt Styles," by Dr. Kari Ronning.
December 12. Tea honoring Mary Ghormley sponsored by the Lincoln Quilters Guild.

The doll quilt at lower right is from the Ghormley Collection.

*EXHIBIT Manhattan, Kansas
Pieces of Time: Quilts from K-State's Historic Costume and Textile Museum will be on display through September 12th at Kansas State University's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art on the university campus. Click here for information: Kansas State University

*EXHIBIT Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Milwaukee Art Museum will be the last stop on the tour of the Winterthur Museum's Quilts in a Material World, curated by Linda Eaton, featuring rare textiles from the late 1700s and early 1800s. Through September 6, 2010. Click here for information: Milwaukee Art Museum

*EXHIBIT New York City
The American Folk Art Museum's summer exhibit Women Only: Folk Art By Female Hands features paintings, drawings, samplers, quilts and rugs from the 18th and 19th centuries, through September 12. Click here for more information: American Folk Art Museum.

The American Folk Art Museum plans the Year of the Quilt with a 12-month exhibit. Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum opens October 5, 2010. The 2-part show will change between April 25 and May 10, 2011. The second rotation will close October 16, 2011. A catalog will be available. Click here for information: American Folk Art Museum

*EXHIBIT Paducah, Kentucky
The National Quilt Museum. The Machine Age of Quilting: Treadle to Computer, quilts from the collection of Pat Holly and Sue Nickels, including the tulip quilt to the right, is up until December 6, 2010. Click here for more information about the Museum: American Quilters Society

*EXHIBIT Santa Ana, California
The Bowers Museum. Quilts: Two Centuries of American Tradition and Technique, curated by Julia D. Zgliniec, featuring quilts from the collection, will be on exhibit from July 3rd through March 28, 2011. The masterpiece star with cut-out chintz (to the right below) is in the display. Click here for information: Bowers Museum

*EXHIBIT Shelburne, Vermont
This season's antique quilt exhibit at the Shelburne Museum, Embellishments: The Art of the Crazy Quilt, will be on display from May 16 through October 24. The show features 19 examples of Victorian-era crazy quilts from the collection, including the piece below, with recently acquired quilts on view for the first time. Click here for more information Shelburne Museum.

*EXHIBIT West Chester, Pennsylvania
Layers: Unfolding the Stories of Chester County Quilts is a three-part rotation of 140 quilts documented in the county's quilt documentation project. The last rotation will be up through September 11, 2010. For more information click here: Chester County Historical Society.

The exhibit catalog is available by mailing the museum a check for $33.68 for the $28 catalog (includes tax & shipping) to The History Center, 225 N. High Street, West Chester, PA 19380-2691. Or call at 610-692-4800. Email mfeliciani@chestercohistorical.org

*EXHIBIT Williamsburg, Virginia
Material Witnesses: Quilts and Their Makers will be on view through May 2012 in the Foster and Muriel McCarl Gallery of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum at Colonial Williamsburg. Kim Ivey, who co-curated the show with Linda Baumgarten, described the search for the history of the museum's quilts: "Fragile as they may be, these creations are similar to the old family Bible, filled with notations of significant dates and events." For more information click here: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.

Quilted Fashions, fifty examples of apparel and bedcoverings from the collection, is on long-term display at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum through October, 2010. For more information click here: DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

EXHIBITS SCHEDULED FOR THE REST OF 2010 & INTO 2011

Lincoln, Nebraska. The International Quilt Study Center & Museum's schedule through 2011:
Marseille: White Corded Quilting, November 13, 2010 - May 8, 2011.
Symposium: Quilted & Corded Whitework: A Closer Look, April 1, 2011.
Revisiting "The Art Quilt", December 17, 2010 - March 27, 2011
Mosaic Quilts, curated by Bridget Long, May 14, 2011-November 6, 2011.

The crazy quilt to the right is from the collection of the Shelburne Museum.

San Jose, California. The Museum of Quilts and Textiles plans Cream of the Cloth: Quilts from the Fletcher Collection for November 16th to January 30, 2011. Click here for information: San Jose Quilt Museum.

Sturbridge, Massaschusetts. The Vintage Fashion & Textile Show is an informal exhibit---a great shopping opportunity for fabric collectors. Three times a year over 100 dealers get together to show their stuffs in Sturbridge on a Monday during Brimfield Week, the flea market destination. Dates for 2010 are May 10th, July 12th and September 6th. Click here for more information: Vintage Fashion & Textile Show.