Quilt Study Group Features Doll Quilts

Can you guess who is behind each quilt?

Fourteen enthusiastic quilters and quilt history aficionados gathered at the La Conner Regional Library on Sunday morning March 29. It was exciting to see so many new faces!  After presenting a history of doll quilts spanning some 100 years using quilts from my personal  collection, we had an exciting Show & Tell.





Left - 1900 scrappy claret and blue (11x14) from collection of Margot Mead.

It is always such fun to hear people's stories about what drew them to quilting. Equally fun is to hear the stories they have to share about the quilts the have brought. I'll post those shortly as I gather them.


















(Above gold and blue Nine Patch from collection of Margot Mead - 11"x14")











Back of Chinese Coins below right.




Be sure to visit the International Quilt Study Center to see more quilts as well is the QUILT INDEXto see more quilts.



(left-9x14 Chinese Coins from collection of Margot Mead.)




To view a podcast about doll quilts click here.

This will take you to the video of Mary Ghomley as talks about her doll quilt collection. You will have to scroll down to about the 14th lecture to find the one on doll quilts – "Childhood Treasures: Quilts Made for and by Children". IQSC featured an exhibit of Ghormley's doll quilts from Oct 2006-March 2007.



Left (16x24): from the collection of Kim Kellem. Made by her mother (Connie Lou Kellog Anderson) and Connie’s grandmother (Lou Rankin Olsen) in the late 30s.











Above right: cotton scrappy crazy (10x14) from collection of Margot Mead.











I’ll be posting a list of books about doll and crib quilts soon. Once you read my list, I hope you will email me the names of other books about doll or crib quilts or contain a chapters on this subject to add to the list.


Another favorite past-time is collecting old photographs of children with quilts or children with dolls. I'll share some from time to time.












After our meeting we trooped over to the LaConner Quilt Museum. It was the last day of Patricia Ormsby Stoddard's exhibit of Ralli Quilts, the traditional textiles from Pakistan and India. They were magnificent! It was such a treat to finally see these quilts in person after only being able to view them in the pages of Stoddard's book for the past 5 years. Also on exhibit for the last day was "All Things Not Quilted", a mesmerizing assemblage of everything except quilts--knitting, weaving, lace making, basket weaving, sewing, embroidery etc.


Meanwhile, keep those needles flying! Otherwise future quilt historians might run out of quilts to study!

Karen Alexander


PS: The folks behind the quilts!




PPS: The artist reception for their new exhibits at LCQM – "Visions in Fiber", featuring the work of Shiela Groman, and "Birdscapes, featuring the work of Karin Franzen – took place April 3rd and 4th. Unfortunately I could not make it but I'll hop the ferry and get over there soon.