Red and White quilts
Back in March 2011 three
centuries of red and white quilts were on display at the Park Avenue Armory in
Manhattan. Sponsored by the American
Folk Art Museum, the exhibit brought together 650 red and white quilts from the
single collection of Joanna S. Rose, the largest single exhibition of quilts
ever held in NYC, free to the public no less.
The magical, spiral method to display the quilts
was spell-binding. Hard to imagine one person collecting 650 quilts let alone
all red and white. Google it to learn more........
I’ve been captivated by this effort…the quilts, the display method, one single collection ever since. I traveled to NYC for work on a regular
basis, but missed the exhibit by a day due to a rescheduled customer meeting. Many regrets on this one!
The minute we launched our new quilt guild last September….BIG RED QUILTERS GUILD, I had this idea swirling in the back
of my head to do some type of guild wide project along these lines. Perhaps a year-long challenge, followed with
some type of exhibit, connecting our guild name to the red and white
category. I presented the idea at one of
our board meetings. The consensus was
yes, we should do something. Naturally, it will be much smaller.
Details have been finalized,
and will be announced at our next meeting. Knowing the details, I couldn’t wait. I began pulling reds from my stash, planning,
organizing, etc. My quilt is
traditional, my original design, involving 26 scrappy shades of red. Civil wars, modern, batiks....you name it. If it reads 'red', its auditioned.
When finished it will have 1,050 hand applique
leaves, over 90 feet of 1/3” bias tape red stems, on a white on white background, and who knows
how many hours of stitching. I have some time to decide if I will hand quilt or
do my own machine quilting, but you can bet I’m tossing it around in my head.
Here’s a snippet to tease your
red and white sensibilities…….the many fabrics and bias tape I made up ready to
go. I’ll be sure to post when all the
quilts are done. Maybe a teaser in
between………but if you don't hear from me for awhile, you'll know what I'm doing!
No comments:
Post a Comment