"Workt by Hand": Hidden Labor and Historical Quilts" at the Brooklyn Museum

No, that's not a typo in the title of this post, that's really the name of a new exhibit of 35 American and European quilts from the the museum's own collection on display through Sept. 15.
Here are some of the highlights, in photos of course!

This red-and white quilt, Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, is from 1850 and looked to be in near-perfect condition. Really striking.

This Album Quilt, left, was also finished around 1850. The colors were so vivid that it looked like a contemporary quilt to me.

The quilt below, called "Baskets Quilt," dates to 1860. I was impressed by its condition, and by the terrific flowers that had been appliqued into each of the baskets.

The quilt to the left is called Touching Stars, also from 1850. Don't the colors look modern?

















The quilt below, called Star of Bethlehem Quilt, is from 1830. The flowers on the quilt were fussy-cut and appliqued onto the white background around the star.

The crazy quilt below, which was totally amazing, was made by an American, Mary Stinson, and finished in 1880. The photo below is from the museum website, but the detail photo below is mine. I wanted to remember some of the amazing embroidery she'd done....all of the flowers were different, and she'd used different colors of thread to create shading. It was really impressive.

  

This photo is from the museum website. The quilt is simply labled "Pictorial Quilt" and it's from 1795 and is made of linen. The photo doesn't do it justice: up close, the little figures are wonderful, full of detail and life.

East Street quilted and bound

I'm so happy to be able to report that I just finished binding my Easy Street quilt and gave it its first wash. Hurrah! There was nobody home to help me hold it so I could take a decent vertical photo of it, so I put it on the floor and stood on a table to take this photo. It give you the idea, anyway.

I think I'm going to give this quilt to my husband Mac, who'd a huge sports car fan, because he says it reminds him of the famous (according to him ) "hippie Porche." Here's a photo of the car----I guess I can see a resemblance:

So this quilt will stay in the family. Now I have to cross my fingers that Mac doesn't try to buy the car to go with it.

I got some great news today, that I am pretty sure is not an April fool's joke. I was one of the winners in the March Block Lotto drawing, and I've won a bunch of really handsome 3-color rectangular blocks. Hurrah again! I think these will make a perfect quilt for my father, who'd got Alzheimers disease and is living in a care facility. I can't wait to put it together and give it to him.