Quilts and More Quilts

Last Tuesday we had two volunteers help catalog some of our quilts. Each quilt was a surprise as we unrolled them for the first time. One even ended up being a woven coverlet instead.
We all admired the time and patience it took to make these hand sewn quilts.

This quilt was made by the Ladies Aid Society of the Algoma Methodist Church of Oshkosh in 1892. Each square features 10 names. Do any of them look familiar?

The volunteers were very helpful in identifying the patterns and fabric used. Scraps and silk pieces were most common. Unfortunately we found that some of the silk has disintegrated.

We have a lot of crazy quilts in our collection. I think this is one of the craziest.

Speaking of quilts...

Hi Curator Deb here! A big thanks Marillyn and Sandra for lending Katrina their expertise on the quilts. As you can see above, they had a great day making discoveries.  

It was quilt week here at the museum because I too had a meeting with the planners of the Lakeside Quilters 2014 conference.  I am very excited to be representing the museum and showing off some of our quilts and their history at the event.  One of the quilts we looked at was this child's size made with a pieced basket and appliqued berries and foliage.

We are also thinking of presenting a quilt square challenge as part of the event and using a pattern from one of the museum pieces. One option looked at was the below block with pattern pieces cut from an old mail order catalog. Do you know the name of this block pattern?  My guess would be "Waste Not, Want Not" after the colorful pattern pieces used.

Keep watching as our quilt projects progress.