Tuesday, April 05, 2011

The other New York City quilt show

 I was in NYC in March to visit my daughter and my inlaws, but our flight home was the day before the big red and white quilt exhibit opened. Aargh! Fortunately, it's The Year of the Quilt at the American Folk Museum (right next door to the Museum of Modern Art), and I took in quite a show there. And they allowed photos! No flash, of course, so some of mine are a bit blurry, but when I was there for a Paula Nadelstern exhibit a couple years ago, they didn't allow any photos at all. Here are a few of my favorites.
 This double wedding ring quilt was made in the 1930s by an unknown quilter (guess that's why we should label our quilts). I loved her use of color.
 I thought this quilt was amazing -- it has an incredible look from a distance...
 ...and up close you can see the tremendous amount of work that went into it! Unfortunately, the photo I took that gave info about the quilt is too blurry to read.
 Low lighting means I also can't read the info on this quilt. It has a very elegant look to it, but the close-up below also shows how wonderfully scrappy and homey it is.

Below is Jessie Telfair's famous Freedom quilt. It really packs a whollop when you see it in person. I was really moved by it.
 Take a look at the close-up to see how it was constructed.
 This is a late 19th century crazy quilt map of the US -- what's not to love? The piecing in the background is pretty amazing, too.  My photo is a little blurry, but there's a better picture of it on the museum website, click here.
 After seeing the exhibit, I stopped by the City Quilter. They had just expanded into the space next door, and they're going to turn part of it into an art quilt gallery. As I looked around, I saw one of Karen Eckmeier's Happy Villages quilts -- this one of NYC, quite a village! It was a great find for me, since I was taking a class from her at my guild the day after I returned home. More on that in another post. I really like her Happy Villages quilts.
And finally, walking to meet my daughter later that day, I went by the most amazing shop filled with old, old, old (even treadle!) sewing machines. Wow! It's a boutique clothing store called All Staints.

And just last week The Quilt Show website had a video of the interior of this store, which they also discovered when in NYC for the big Red and White quilt exhibit. Take a look here.

10 comments:

Lori said...

I saw those quilts last week and was so inspired by them!!

What a fun shop to come across in NYC. That is a lot of sewing machines!!

jillytacy said...

I love the happy village quilt! The freedom quilt is amazing too!

Rosalyn Manesse said...

Thanks for posting the amazing photos!

Mermaid's Purse said...

How wonderful to have been able to see one of the "Village Quilts" and have the opportunity to take a class! I got the book for Christmas but have yet to make a start on anything!!

Barb said...

What amazing quilts!!

Maggie Szafranski said...

Totally awesome quilts! Wasn't Karen's class awesome!

em's scrapbag said...

Thanks for sharing this amazing post and sharing the links to find more.

Sharon said...

Wow, you did pretty good at finding quilts, even if you did miss the big R&W show. Thanks for sharing your photos - those are some awesome quilts. Some I recognize from books etc.
What an incredible collection of sewing machines! I wonder how many of them actually work?

Tonya Ricucci said...

that Freedom quilt has long been one of my absolute favorites. sorry you missed the red and white but at least you got to see some fun quilts!

Meggie said...

Fabulous quilts!