Curtiss Museum currently has a major exhibition of quilts.
On our visit a couple of weeks ago, as we entered the museum we entered a Stonehenge of quilts hanging from free-standing racks — in addition to those hanging on walls, exhibited in cases, or otherwise being shown.
Just to give you some perspective… I started counting up quilts that could at least qualify as lap quilts. (Most were full-size.) I came up with a figure of 73.
PLUS a few dozen smaller items, articles of quilted clothing, and more. I don’t quilt, though my wife and my sister have each made a few. Being as historically interested as I am, and enthusiastic about folk tales and folk music as I am, you can guess that I enjoy looking at traditional quilts. But I ALSO have fun seeing newer approaches — tradition’s great, but so’s innovation.
“A Day in Lake Country,” by Jennie Peck of Alexander, springs to life in bright untraditional yellows and oranges. Happy fish swim in and out of underwater scenes. The small quilt “Mardi Gras” (Joyce Swackhammer, Bath) is very dark, shot through with bright metallic thread — to me, they suggested fireworks. “Let’s Build a Snowman” (Maureen Johnson, Bath) jumps right out with big white snowflakes on bright blue bands.
Maureen Johnson also created the “Carolina Lily” quilt tossed onto the gleaming black Studebaker sleigh, courtesy of John Wickes in Prattsburgh.
Virginia Gleason’s “Civil War Sampler” abounds in traditional geometric forms. Katherine Baumgardner (Thurston) created several quilts, including “Mama Says,” with redwork outlined scenes and quotes from mother.
Baumgardner is also exhibiting “Quilts in the Garden,” three outlined scenes of quilts on the clothesline, done in redwork outline embroidery. The scenes are set vertically, mounted in an old window sash.
“Needles & Notions” (Shirley Fleet, Bath) is a long hanging, picturing shears, needle, thread, measuring tape, sewing machine, and other quilting necessities. It’s her first adventure in paper piecing.
Several quilts had holiday designs, including three or four Halloween quilts that I wouldn’t want on MY bed, but to each his own. On the other hand I very much enjoyed “Over the River and Through the Woods,” with flying goose borders, traditional squares on the dividers, and a warm wintry scene.
One quilt is not only traditional but historic — perhaps 150 years old. It’s a spoke quilt, often done for fundraising, with 540 names stitched in. We’d love to know what community it’s from, but we’ve only identified one or two names with confidence. Take a look, and see if you can help.
Why Curtiss Museum? For one thing, it’s probably the biggest year-round exhibit space in the central part of the county. But for another, the very young Glenn Curtiss, already mechanically enthralled, was fascinated by his mother’s sewing machine — perhaps the most complex piece of machinery in most households back in the early 1880s. So she sat him on her lap and worked the treadle with her feet while a very small Glenn Curtiss pieced a quilt for her. Too bad we don’t have THAT to show today.