A couple of years ago my cousin contacted me about the International Quilt Museum. She had been introduced to it thru PBS. They were running an exhibit of Ken Burns Quilts. She lives near Indianapolis. She found herself going down a rabbit hole that totally caught her attention. She was hooked! Asking if I had ever been, I was embarrassed to say NO. I knew about the Quilt Museum of course but, never made the time to go.
Back in 1987 the Nebraska Quilt Project put a call out to Nebraskans. They were searching for old Nebraska quilts. They wanted to photograph and document them. My mom had a very special quilt from 1883 that she wanted to have documented. A wedding quilt made by her Great Grandmother for her Grandmother. She was unable to take it down to Lincoln that day, so she asked me to take it. Which I did.
With Quilt in tow, I stood in line for quite a while waiting my turn. The person doing the documentation started by asking me some questions. All I really knew about it was that it came from my great, great grandma, and it was in colors like nothing I had ever seen before. First question was where did it come from. On the fly I said Minnesota. She immediately said I’m sorry we can’t use your quilt. They were only documenting quilts made in Nebraska. Having nothing to loose, I stated my case. Or should I say my mom’s case! But, but we moved from Minnesota to Nebraska in 1963 and brought the quilt with us. I’m talking really fast now. Shouldn’t that account for something? The documenter said will you just wait, let me take the quilt to the board. This is such an unusual quilt, I would love to see it included. OK now maybe we’re getting somewhere.
I waited for quit a little while and suddenly there it was again. Whew! The documenter came back to me and said they had a meeting with the board and yes because it is so unusual we would love to include it in our documentation. Success! I took the beloved quilt off her hands and was told that we would receive a cloth certification to sew to the back of the quilt within a few weeks. True to their words we received the documentation a few weeks later.
Fast forward a few decades! During this conversation with my cousin, I had an AHA moment. My cousin is heavy into genealogy and we were talking about the Quilt. We share this Great, Great Grandma but, she had never seen the quilt. At that time I stretched it out on the bed and shot her some pictures of it. I then realized that the quilt didn’t originate from Minnesota. Though Mary Ellen Crawford (the receiver) later moved to Minnesota my great, great grandma was from Texas. All of a sudden all the cogs all started to fall into place. Of course this is a Texas Quilt. The coloring of it with its Turkey Red and Mustard Yellow coloration screams Texas.
The quilt is getting very fragile. I’ve stored it in a pillow case and remove it and refold it every year. The center panel that is the true magic of the quilt is getting thread bare. Part of me would love to get it restored but that is something that I cannot afford to do. I remember my mom telling me to cut it up and frame a section of it. Frankly I would love to take the center panel and have it framed. Design a room around it. Threadbare or not! Unfortunately I don’t have a room a could design it around. So I’ve been trying to decide whether to donate it to the Quilt Museum. I’m not sure I’m ready to do this yet but it’s silly to have it just sitting in a pillow case.
My mom would bring it out for special occasions and often at Christmas time it would go on her bed. She took such good care of it. If we were caught sitting on the quilt, we not only got the “Mom Look” we got the talking to! What’s the big deal, it’s just an old quilt. No snuggling in this quilt!!! This truly was beloved. Her Grandma’s lived with them most of her life. They rotated out! She was particularly close to this grandma.
As President of La Belle Vue Quester’s it was my job to select a summer outing. I picked the International Quilt Museum. Partly because I thought our members would enjoy the excursion but, mostly because I wanted to experience it. Let me tell you it was a wonderful experience. I will share more in the next post but, if you ever find yourself within 100 miles of Lincoln NE it is worth the stop. They rotate exhibits every 4-6 months and then those quilts are rolled and put away for 10 YEARS. They have over 11,000 quilts. We saw about 236 quilts that day.
Thanks for Stopping
Shelley
