Christmas memories
Homespun designs feature traditional patterns from a bygone era
THERE are just 50 shopping days left before Christmas, but if you want to get an early redand-green fix even before Thanksgiving, check out the “Christmas Quilts, Christmas Memories” exhibit at the 2016 International Quilt Festival.
Though not full of Santas, gingerbread or evergreen trees, this group of 38 quilts from the permanent collection of the International Quilt Association, is a crowd-pleaser. Pieced in red, green and white, these quilts were made as long ago as 1840 and as recently as 1900.
While vendor booths and other displays are buzzing with the latest machinery, gadgets and guides for quilters, this exhibit harks back to a time when quilters could do their work only in daylight or by candlelight, when fabric selections were sparse and every stitch was made by hand.
Fabric for these quilts was drawn from whatever was at hand: flour sacks or old clothes with just a bit of life left in them.
“I’ve often said that quilters are the original upcyclers,” said Bob Ruggiero, director of publications and public information for Quilts, Inc.
If the hand-painted quilts and wall-hangings using thousands of tiny pieces wow the crowds, these traditional quilts will make you appreciate what good needlework could be in what we likely consider the hardest of circumstances.
The quilts are all included in a new gift book the Quilt Association has published, “Christmas Quilts, Christmas Memories,” edited by Karey Patterson Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes.
Patterns were all common at the time, including Urn of Flowers, a snowflake design, Cherry Wreath, Democratic Rose Wreath, Rose of Sharon and even one titled “Star Spangled Banner.”
Never before have this many redand-green quilts been displayed in public at once, Ruggiero said.
The display can be found just inside the entrance to Hall D at the George R. Brown Convention Center.