On the way to our January retreat we stopped at the Grand Rapids Public Museum to see some beautiful quilts. This was start to the quilting journey planned for the weekend in which I couldn’t help repeating “I Love the Quilt”!
As we were making our way toward the quilts, we got distracted by rows of beautiful dresses, a girl just can’t help herself – the magic of a vintage gown was pulling us in.
In the end, it was all about quilts and our favorites were the calico dresses.
We found some nice cheddar…
…in one of the older pieces from the museum. We could have spent an afternoon in the dresses alone not to mention the 1000s of other pieces that are in the museum – but we knew the we had to maintain focus and move on to the quilts.
So we “tumbled” our way to the room of them waiting for us.
In this beauty we were quickly reminded of the dresses that we left behind.
Simple applique with an accent of cheddar that lingered in our memories.
We took a big breath with a stunning red and white star.
And dove back into an “Ocean Wave” of scraps. Notice the red/muslin half square triangle and how it anchors the scrappiness.
A delightful pineapple with the touch of red that pops like a buoy in a dark sea.
Crazy I tell you!
“I love this quilt” I whisper it again and again.
There was such a great variety of quilts.
You might be able to say “There was a boatload of them”!
We ended up at the Bermuda Triangle of applique,
and I was lost…
I felt weak in my knees to see this beauty, the fabric was amazing and the red was there again in the form of a big print.
Half square triangles – we all giggled when this quilt opened as we are in the middle of a triangle exchange.
One piece fabric large applique to muslin as white as a sail carried us to the quilt that I was waiting to see.
A quilt that one friend sent me a picture of and another made sure that I had the chance to enjoy this quilt in person – Thank you girls!
It was like seeing a mermaid and there I was again repeating “I Love this Quilt”.
We touched, we photographed, we swam in the sea of scraps.
We left exhausted and hungry for more, dreaming of another faraway quilting adventure. Fortunately, sometimes these journeys are waiting right in your back yard! If you think you might want to visit or even just donate to preserve these treasures, navigate your way to http://www.grmuseum.org/collections or contact Andrea directly at amelvin@grmuseum.org.
Bon Voyage!
I can't hardly wait for the stars upon stars quilting to start. I've been waiting to do this quilt ever since seeing it in the book and seeing it at a Doan's girls retreat in Hamilton. A lady did it and another of the quilts in the patches of stars book during covid lockdown. It was fabulous. When she showed it I had to stand up and shout " bravo". I'm going to start with fabrics I have currently as I have given up buying any more fabric during lent. But I don't need to worry, I have 4 large tubs of your fabrics.