Red & White Quilts in New York 04-27-11

I don't know how many times I have looked at these images. There are so many quilts (651) that I have to spend a lot of time looking at each slide. There are "famous" quilts that we have seen in magazines and books, it is nice to know that they are cherished and cared for, but there are also quilts I imagine have rarely been displayed. Maybe because they are not spectacular, but more likely because there are limited venues for displaying quilts. I draw your attention to a few I think are special: the red and white "stripy" in slide #4; the airplane quilt on the upper left of slide #3; the interesting combination of stars, bars and hearts in the center of slide #2. I'd love to know more about the redwork embroidery quilt in slide #5 - labels from flour? chicken feed? derived from fruit packing boxes? - history in thread. I wonder about the anonymous (mostly) women who imagined these designs and wielded their needles and sewing machines to create such beauty; they worked with poor light and limited time and, sometimes, had hopes of recognition, probably at the county fair. It is particularly wonderful that the collector, Joanna Rose, had the desire, the eye and the money to assemble such a fabulous view of quilts in red and white. I wish I could have seen this exhibit - all those wonderful quilts "in-the-fabric", but I wonder if I might not just have swooned away at the sight.



http://www.dnainfo.com/20110324/upper-east-side/quilts-take-over-park-avenue-armory

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