Quilt Trip

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far away, I took a quilting class. This was not a how-to-use-your-Janome quilt class, but a quilt-by-hand quilt class. We learned various and sundry piecing and quilting techniques by making pillow tops. (Guess what everyone on my xmas list received that year.) I ended the class by purchasing enough calico to make a log cabin quilt. It took years, but I finally got the whole thing pieced together into one huge quilt top. And that's as far as I got. It is one of those "someday" projects - someday it will be finished and spread upon my bed.

Because I know how much work goes into handmade quilts, I have a soft spot in my heart for these works of art. So it was the quilts and other handmade items that caught my eye in Robert Frost's farm in Derry, NH.

I will admit up front that I don't know much about quilt block names other than they are frequently poetic (like the names of colorways). Being rather uncreative, I would call this a fan pattern.





This quilt for the baby's crib had little piecework, but lovely stitching.





How stone walls are built is a mystery to me, and so is how crazy quilts are pieced.





I didn't get a chance to quiz the museum guide about the quilts, as he was short-staffed that day. However, he was full of intimate little stories about "Rob" and probably knew a few about the quilts, or at least where these particular ones came from.



Quilting wasn't the only handcraft in evidence at the farm. This doll's outfit appeared to be crocheted.



Life without running water had to have been rough, but the women of the household still found time to add little artful touches to their everyday items.