Great Lakes Quilt Collection, Part 1!

Three times through the System Restore ---what a pain! I’m sending this post in safe mode and then doing a system restore after sending all my photos to my website server via safe-mode=with-networking.  Aren’t computers the worst pain when they are not behaving right?  Goodness! 

But let’s get on to posting some pictures from my Great Lakes Quilt Collection Experience…

Special thanks to Rosemary and to Beth Donaldson, who gave her time to show us not only a special selection of quilts –but also took time to give us a private tour of the archives ----we saw vintage clothing, furniture, and even old sewing machine s--- the museum holds so much more than you can ever see at one time….I felt like we’d hit the jackpot in “oh so cool!”.

The drawers behind me hold quilt collections.  And no, they are NOT wrapped in plastic --- that is breathable acid-free nylon.  And the quilts are not on cardboard tools --- they are actually made out of cotton rag ---they take the utmost care of the quilts here, the best I’ve seen anywhere!

Can you imagine the quilts these cabinets hold?!

Beth picked 4 quilts she thought that I would especially like.  And she is right!  This top one has an appliqued posie in the center of each block.  And though the blocks look alike --- they are NOT identical.  There are even a few cheddar posies in between all the other solid red ones!  I love the way the red sashings look like they are floating around and in between the blocks.  Let’s take a close up, shall we?

Not a single intact point to be found!  LOVE IT!

Many of the blocks had 3 matching triangles per side….but not always.  In the case of this one, the bottom row has a different center triangle.  FUN!

Scraps Scrambled!

I love how she was a bit symmetrical here --- center cheddar triangles top and bottom, and center pink triangles side by side…and even mirror image placement with some of the triangles….can you find htem?  Directly across from each other?

Great fabrics here…and she didn’t care how much she used that one corner stone print – it takes over the whole block.

Striped Posey!

3 sides have matching triangles, one side kept with the green color way but was scrappy.  According to Beth, this quilt is from about 1860.

Another view of those sashings looking almost 3 D!

Rosemary getting as close as she was allowed without touching!

I didn’t think of doing this video until we had the quilt folding well under way ---but just to give you the feel of our private tour, here is Beth instructing Rosemary ((white gloved!)) on the ins and outs of removing this quilt off the top of the stack and over to the side so we could view the next one under it:

It was a great day!

There is so much more to share, but with the computer hiccups I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to do until I get the computer looked at.  I’m torn between just working it in safe mode with networking until I get home….or do that system restore?  UGH!