Quilt Shows and Mary Jo's...

I was flipping through a Home Design Magazine the other day and was very intrigued by an article featuring two different museums with amazing Quilt Exhibitions. One in Vermont the other in Washington D.C. The best part is even if you can't make it in person you can view portions online and be inspired by museum quality examples of truly fantastic quilts. Remember we have beautiful quilting fabric in the store and online. Amazing quality at affordable prices, check it out today at www.maryjos.com .

The Textile Museum in Washington D.C. is featuring a wonderful Exhibit.
Constructed Color: Amish Quilts. Thru September 6, 2009
Amish quilts are among the most striking and famous of all American quilt types. Renowned for their play of color and strong geometric patterns, their similarities to modern art have been noted ever since the 1971 exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York entitled Abstract Design in American Quilts. The parallels are perhaps most striking with regard to color field paintings and art that explores the manipulation of visual effect.

This exhibition, on loan from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, features 29 examples from the center’s highly regarded collection. The quilts represent three specific regional groups, each with its own distinctive features, drawn from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, from Midwestern communities and from Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Each of these Amish communities produces unique quilts that reflect the availability of materials, influences from non-Amish neighbors, and the relative conservatism of individual communities as determined by their Ordnung, or community guidelines. The objects which will be on view in the exhibition represent some of the finest Amish quilts in the world."

The Shelburne Museum in Vermont is featuring an incredible collection of quilts designed and made by Florence Cowdin Peto (1880-1970) the exhibit runs through October 25, 2009.

“Florence was an influential collector and quiltmaker who worked tirelessly to bring attention to quilts as an important and integral part of our heritage,” said Curator Jean Burks, who is organizing Piecing Together the Past. “Her goal was to show that this true form of folk art was as historically meaningful as the written word.” Peto’s influence extended to Shelburne Museum, when in the 1950’s, she actively encouraged Museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb to include quilts as an essential part of the Museum’s collection.

"Piecing Together the Past" brings together ten Peto quilts on loan from a direct descendant, exhibiting them as a group for the first time. The exhibit also includes a selection of eight historic examples Peto collected that were acquired specifically for Shelburne Museum.

During the 1940s and ‘50s Peto designed and created an amazing body of quilt work using her extensive collection of Centennial and traditional fabrics. She developed a distinctive style using antique copperplate and roller-printed calicoes, chintzes and toiles over a homespun background. Her artistic technique is distinguished by signature floral vine appliqué borders, elaborate broderie perse work and fussy cut flowers.In 1980, Peto was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame, in Marion Indiana."

Do you have a story or project to share? We are working on a "Mary Jo Cloth Quilter's" article, send us your beautiful work, you could be featured on the blog or the community page.