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| Documenting, Preserving and Sharing the Stories of Quilts and Quiltmakers
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| News from The Alliance Volume 34, June 11, 2009 |
Dear Alliance Members & Supporters, Summer is almost here, a time for quilt shows,
festivals and retreats from coast to coast. The biennial Quilt National show,
the premiere showcase for cutting-edge art quilts recently opened and will draw
crowds between now and September at the Diary Barn in Athens, Ohio.
This is the season for quilters of all types and backgrounds to strut their
stuff, and a great time to introduce new audiences to the exciting world of
21st century quiltng.
So we want to take this opportunity to enlist all our
supporters and members in an effort to include the Alliance for American Quilts in this massive,
annual, nationwide summer Show & Tell. Right now, whatever else you're
doing, take a minute and forward this e-mail to five people you know. It's great if they already love
quilts, but include a few names of people who haven't discovered the news about
quilting, who don't know the ranks of quiltmakers have doubled in a decade, or
that vintage and historic quilts are being documented with the latest high-tech
tools. Explain to them that the AAQ works like a portal to multiple virtual
quilt museums, bringing together vast collections of quilts in museum vaults
and state documentation projects, along with a unique oral history project with
900-plus online interviews, and more. Four centuries of quilts at your
fingertips, any time of the day or night.
We'll continue to add vast new quilt collections right
through the summer, so tell your friends to subscribe to this free e-newsletter.
And stay tuned!
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QUICK LINKS
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Recently posted Quilters' S.O.S.- Save Our Stories interviews, including the New Mexico Q.S.O.S. and the Healing Quilts in Medicine Q.S.O.S. Project.Visit.
"Quilt Treasure" Cuesta Benberry tells the story of the "WPA tulip". Visit.
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See Some of the Crazy Contest Quilts at NQA & Grab Some Special
Goodies
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Speaking of crazy quilts, the deadline to
receive our Crazy for Quilts contest entries was June 1 and a few last-minute
quilts just trickled into our Asheville,
N.C. office. We're thrilled with
the sophistication, variety and artistry among the 70-plus quilts entered, all
of which will be auctioned off on eBay from October 26- November 15, 2009 to help fund the projects of
the AAQ.
By early next month you'll be able to view all these mini crazy quilts on our website. But you can get a preview
if you plan on attending the 40th Annual National Quilting Association show in Columbus,
Ohio from June 17 - 20. Come to booth number 704 to meet Amy Milne,
executive director of the Alliance.
Here is a peek at some of the quilts you'll see:
"Rose Song" by Betty Pillsbury of Middleburgh, New York
"Variegated Craziness" by Vickie Paullus of Cincinnati, Ohio
"One Crazy Hot Mama" by Pamela Allen of Kingston, Ontario.
"A Bit Dotty - - A Crazy Quilt of Course" by Sandra Starley of Moab, Utah
Also, Amy will have some treats and special deals at
the NQA show for people who join the Alliance
for American
Quilts or renew an existing membership. Incentives (provided by our
generous partners at Simplicity Creative Group) include a free EZ Quilting Simply Crazy Tool at the $25 membership level, and for a $50 membership, you can get
a free
SideWinder, one of those nifty portable bobbin-winding devices made by
Wrights.
AND all
new members who join at NQA will be registered to win a prize in our
Summer
Membershp Drive Giveway, featuring must-have devices like the automatic
Simplicity Bias Tape Maker that was the talk of spring Quilt Market
(and
retails for $100).
In the next issue of the newsletter and on our
homepage, we'll be posting more news about the Summer Membership drive: you
won't have to go to Columbus
to enter, but if you are going to NQA, stop to see Amy and the quilts.
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MORE THAN 2,000 IOWA QUILTS ADDED TO THE QUILT INDEX
If you're seeking a
vast, impressive exhibition of stunning period quilts this summer, you won't do
better than to virtually visit the latest collection on the Quilt Index. (Just
think how much you'll save on gas.)
The Quilt Index is a partnership of the Alliance and Michigan
State University.
The newest contributor of quilts to this effort is the State Historical Society
of Iowa, which recognized the significance of these quilts and endeavored to
share them with a broader audience. The Iowa
project is one of the largest additions to the Index thus far, and brings the
total number of quilts documented in the Quilt Index to more than 21,000.
The State Historical Society of Iowa houses both the Iowa Quilt Research Project, established
in 1987, and
the Mary Barton Collection, donated to the
State of Iowa
between 1988 and 2000. More than 500 volunteers staffed Quilt Discovery Days in 13 regions of
the state and the quality and variety of quilts taken from Iowans' beds, attics
and closets is impressive by any standard.
Just spend 10 minutes browsing the Iowa quilts on the Quilt Index and see the stunning
examples of log cabins, crazy quilts, applique standards, and many unusual
variations of traditional patterns. You can browse by period, pattern or
quiltmaker. Here is
one
that really caught my eye, a very unusual crazy quilt made toward the end of
the 19th century.
 This luscious quilt was part of the collection of Mary
Barton of Ames, Iowa, an inductee into the Quilters Hall of
Fame who is recognized as one of the first to document not only quilts, but the
methods and social mores of quiltmakers. Nearly 200 textiles from Barton's
historically significant collection are included among the important Iowa quilts you'll find
on the Index. These are grouped together, and I think if you check out the
Barton quilts, you'll appreciate (and envy) her amazing taste.
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Quilt Index Survey--Help Us Plan for Longevity
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 The
Quilt Index staff would like to gather your feedback to help us develop a long-term plan to
sustain this project. To date the Quilt Index has been funded
exclusively by grants, including major funding from the National
Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library
Services, and the in-kind contributions of Michigan State University
Museum, The Alliance for American Quilts, and MATRIX: Center for Humane
Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online/MSU.
We're interested in your response to various revenue-generating options for the project. To offer your feedback via a short survey, click here.
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$25
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An Alliance membership is as low as $25 per year. That's less than 50 cents a week to ensure that future generations of your own family can see the work done by incredible quiltmakers of this century and many before, including you.
Click here to JOIN TODAY!
Join by August 31st to be eligible to win a prize in our Summer Membership Drive Giveaway. New members stand to win a Simplicity Bias Tape Maker!
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Our Mission Never Expires. Our commitment is to document, preserve and share in perpetuity--but we need your support!
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That's all for now. Meanwhile, I'm planning to
wear my Alliance
for American Quilts member pin proudly this summer to all the quilt shows I
attend. I hope that you will too, and that we'll meet up at one of the quilt
venues of the summer season.
Gratefully, Meg Cox
Vice president, The Alliance for American Quilts
[email protected]
[email protected]
The Alliance for American Quilts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Membership dues and donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from the Alliance, please click on the SafeUnsubscribe link below. Please remember to update your registration if you change your email address; just click here to go to our sign-up page.
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