• Saturday, December 10th, 2011
What started as a bummer of a day – actually turned out fairly well.
We just returned from a trip to VA on a scouting venture for one of Tom’s photo workshops in the Shenandoah National Park. Friday we were supposed to tour the facility at Big Meadows Lodge on Skyline Drive and drive to some of the places that might be used during the workshop. Unfortunately the all-day rain Thursday froze on Skyline Drive overnight and it was closed all day. It seems that they just wait for a natural thaw to happen. No salting of the roads like we do in Central New York.
So now what to do with the day???
We spent the morning driving through some of the surrounding area for potential photo sites. When the road was still closed at noon and not likely to open up until the next morning we decided to stop at the in-town visitors center for some suggestions on how to spend the afternoon.
One of the suggestions was a quilt museum, that just happened to be across the street from the Visitor’s Center. Don’t know how she might have thought that would be of interest to me. Guess I just must have the ‘look’ of a quilter about me – or maybe it was the thread snippets that seem to cling to every bit of clothing that I have. (I’ve been sewing the binding for one of the quilts that I’m making for Christmas presents while riding around in the car).
After a lunch at Clementine’s Cafe I went off to the quilt museum (many the area buildings have been not only restored but completely transformed from their original purpose.) The building, which originally housed the Strand Theater, has been transformed into an eclectic mixture of modern art, live music (in the evening) and as we experienced – good food. Tom headed further downtown to look at more of the historic buildings. And on the way found a co-op art gallery. (I think we must be magnets for the things that interest each of us.)
The quilt museum was definitely worth the stop. The building which was built in 1855, is the former home of FTH Warren, a lawyer who died in the Civil War. It also served as a hospital for Confederate soldiers during the war, and was later the home of George Sipe, an attorney and House of Delegates member. Currently it houses many Civil War quilts and has a special exhibit by the members of the Country School Quilters. This guild is one of 7 chapters of the Richmond Quilters Guild.
Museum exhibit curator, Estelle Porter, says that the “quilts encompass many styles and techniques such as Baltimore Album, whole cloth, and surface-embellishment with beads, found objects, crystals, Angelina fibers, ribbons, painting, dyeing, thread painting, photo transfers, and couched thread scraps. Some quilts are entirely hand made. Many are machine quilted. Some quilts use traditional patterns, while others are completely original. Several quilts have won prizes and/or been exhibited in national competitions and several quilters have been published in national magazines.”
Unfortunately photography was not allowed in the museum, but some of the quilts can be viewed on the website of the Virginia Quilt Museum.
A perfect end to the day after all!
There's always time to quilt!
The pattern is from the local featured quilt shop, Calico Gals. Some of the applique was done. Now it is closer to being finished.
- so now I’m ready to start on the woolwork portion of the table runner.
