Quilting Out Loud at the Newark Museum

It was a "pinch me" week-end in the New York City area!  I flew in late Thursday and back home early Sunday, with every second in between filled with rich and wonderful quilt-related experiences...

I spent all day Friday in the Garment District visiting M & S Schmalberg Custom Fabric Flowers and my other must-stops to shop for treasure. Right after I got back to Newark, my friend Jodie Davis arrived at the hotel and we turned in early to be fresh for our big day Saturday, filming my segment of "Quilt Out Loud" at the Newark Museum.  Our reward for that was a party back in the City....

The Newark Museum is an unsung gem.  Among many, many other things, they have a huge quilt collection, most of which never sees the light of day.  But right now a fabulously curated show is up that gives a sampling of what they have. Included are some crazy quilts that have never been publicly displayed before now.  Have a look!  (All photos are posted with permission.)

This is the Hall Family Crazy quilt, completed in 1882 in Providence, Rhode Island.  It was a multi-generational family collaboration which I found fascinating.  Some of the makers could NOT get with the crazy quilting program and made traditional quilt blocks that they then embroidered.  Others simply embroidered their squares.  There are a few randomly pieced blocks but not many!

This block is amazing, as it was done by the great-grandmother.  She cross stitched her birth year, 1791!  The curator, Ulysses Grant Deitz (great great grandson of the president), believes that as a child she learned stitching on samplers, and carried that tradition through into her crazy quilting.  Isn't that cool?  I think he was right.

There were several crazy type blocks....

But more of them were strange hybrids like this one....

...and this one, which totally cracks me up.

The border is very fine though....

Beautifully rendered...

Ulysses said he didn't like the next quilt.  I'm glad that didn't stop him from including it...

....because I think it is awesome!  But I love fans...and have never seen them set like this.
The backing fabric is really neat too.

All of us were trying to imagine a whole dress made of this stuff.  I think it would have been fabulous but the guys weren't so sure.  We all decided it must have been fabric used as linings for mens' smoking jackets.

A later crazy quilt, from 1920, is from Louisiana.

This was made by an African American lady named Mrs. Barbeau.

I really enjoyed talking with Ulysses, whose official title I think is Curator of Decorative Arts.  He was really interested in the social context in which all these quilts were not only made, but donated to or purchased by the museum as well.  He had both knowledgeable and fresh eyes, and the exhibit is fantastic.

In the morning, Ulysses filmed a tour of the show that will be on Quilt Out Loud early in 2012.  In the afternoon, it was my turn to be on camera!

The crew was so good that my experience was fun and stress free.  Jodie and Mark are such pros, as were the sound and camera guys, the oh-so-gentle director, and the production assistant too.  I was in good hands.

It was fun watching them at work.....

...and it was fun being a part of it too.  My segment was shot in the weaving studio.  (All those looms made me so hungry to start weaving again.)  It will be aired in February 2012.

When we were all done and had hugged the crew good-bye, Jodie and I took the train into Penn Station and walked the few blocks to where our friend and fellow Alliance for American Quilts board member, Victoria Findley Wolf lives.  She was having her 4th Annual Girls Party and invited us!  There were two other Alliance board members there too, so we had a mini-reunion.

That's Meg Cox, me, Jodie, Marie Bostwick, and Victoria. 
Can you tell how much we enjoyed being together?  It's a night I will never forget....

And now it is good to be home after logging many miles of fall travel.  I've been a very lucky girl...  ;-)