More Stories in the Stitches

We held our March documentation day at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts last Saturday, which just happened to be International Quilting Day.  As always, we met wonderful quilt owners who shared their family quilts and auction finds with us.  I'm sharing just a few of them here with you.

The quilt above is called The Lady's Dream, and was offered as a pattern and a kit by Mrs. Scioto Danner long ago.  This one was made for the wedding of the current owner's parents.  It has been used only for "best" and is in very nice condition.

Here's a quilt made for the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial in 1998.  The ladies continue to use it to help 4th graders learn about Wisconsin history.

One of my favorite blocks in the quilt!

This scrap quilt from the 1950s (check out the chartreuse sashing!) has some interesting borders.  They are almost identical in each corner.

A beautiful basket quilt from around the turn of the 20th Century.  We loved all the great old fabrics and especially the fan quilting.

These old ribbons always make my heart beat faster.  This one celebrates the 18th Annual Encampment of the G. A. R., Dept. of New York, in Rochester, N. Y. in 1884.  The G.A.R. was a veterans' organization of Union Civil War soldiers.  It was found on a crazy quilt.

One of our volunteers owns this pristine beauty.  Here's one I'd like to try my hand at.  And what amazing colors!

I need your help with this one!  Try as we might, we could not figure out the pattern.

Here's a close up.  Are we missing something here, or is this an original pattern dreamed up by the maker?

One of the great things we are seeing now are LABELS.  Quilters are putting labels on their quilts!  Here are 3 we saw on Saturday:

A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers who worked so hard and carefully, entering the information, measuring, taking photos, and sewing on our labels.  Another big thank you goes to the quilt owners, who took their time to bring the quilts, and to preserve them and their stories.
All of the information will be entered into the Quilt Index online as we get time.  So none of the stories will be lost.
That reminds me, I need to label that quilt I finished the other day.

Here are some of our volunteers, hard at work, with the owner looking on.