Friday, June 24, 2011

Vermont Quilt Festival

We have enjoyed a whirlwind of a week! We hit every quilt store we could find, and spent every cent we brought along...  and then some!!! We did lots of sightseeing and went to all the popular tourist attractions, including the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory.
I LOVED the Shelburne Museum  and wish they had more of their wonderful collection of quilts on display. My favorite quilt in the permanent collection was made by Clarissa White Alford, who lived 1806 to 1890. She raised 9 children of her own and 6 step-children. In her later years she made this fabulous scrap quilt from QTS's and this quilt has 6,048 pieces! It inspired me to continue to keep every little scrap of fabric, because one day I'm going to make a Clarissa inspired quilt!
And of course we had a great time today at the quilt festival. One of my favorite things about this show was the number of French speaking visitors. I live in Canada which is considered to be a bilingual country, having english and french as the 2 official languages. There is a lot of pressure to have bilingual services, and laws to provide bilingual schools, signage, etc and I do speak some French myself. But in my day to day life, I have never been in a public place and overheard people speaking French. Today in Vermont I frequently overheard women chatting in French about the quilts. I tried to eavesdrop and figure out what they were saying but the technical terms were hard for me to translate. It was totally serendipitous for me to experience this at the quilt show!
I saw many inspiring quilts and I was delighted to discover that we were allowed to take photos at the quilt show, as many shows I have been to in the last couple of years have prohibited any photography. This show states in their program book that photos may be posted on websites, and full credit must be given to the quilt makers. 
This policy is generous and refreshing, and I hope that the visitors abide by it, and that future quilt shows will follow this example.  The one quilt I want to show you is this scrap quilt made in 1909 by Philea A. Spear when she was 84 years old. It has 12,976 pieces of fabric and it was amazing!!
It is sometimes hard to sleep with so much inspiration and quilts being made in our dreams!

6 comments:

Beth said...

I got a chuckle out of 'sometimes hard to sleep with so much inspiration and quilts being made in our dreams' My husband told me that I can no longer machine quilt after 8:30 in the evening as I thrash around all night as I sleep! poor guy..wonder if I talk 'quilts' in my sleep too!

Kate said...

Sounds like you've had a fabulous time. Both the quilts you posted are amazing! Thanks for sharing.

jeaniequilts said...

Wow! What a wonderful trip you have had. Thanks for posting so many amazing pictures. Have a safe trip home. Looking forward to taking more classes from you, in the Fall.

Vivian said...

I want to know who in the world counted those 12,976 pieces! What a wonderful blast of color and random piecing.
I've figured out a solution or two to problems while dreaming about my quilting. Isn't it a wonderful theme for our dreams? It's a bit hard to fall asleep some nights with HST and 1/4" seams dancing in my head, but I'll just have to suffer. :)

Libby said...

Vermont was one of my favorite spots in the east . . . looks like you had a great trip! Did you get a free sample at Ben and Jerry's? Loved it!

Unknown said...

ROFL! YES, and another emphatic YES! I think this one is my FAVORITE! Not sure if I am intrigued by the number of pieces in her quilt or her age when she worked with the 12,976 small pieces of fabrics. It was also fascinating how she folded and tucked the pieces. I know we quilters hope we can SEE to sew at that age!!! WOW!

hugz
Pam