International Quilt Museum

Continuing the story of my first trip the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska to the that I began in yesterday’s post International Quilt Museum, Lincoln Nebraska, Part I .

After we finished our “behind the scenes tour” (see yesterday’s post for more on that) we had some time to wander about the museum before we needed to get back on the road to drive 7 hours back to Denver.

Okay so now back to my experience wandering the museum’s exhibits.

Below are photos from some of the exhibits I really enjoyed while we wandered around after the behind the scenes tour.

Sue Spargo: A Journey in Quilting Exhibit

Sue Spargo is known for her amazing hand embroidery work. The images below that I took do not do the quilts justice, they were amazing. When I lived in Bend, Oregon she used to come to Central Oregon all the time and I could have easily taken classes with her, too bad I missed out on the opportunity!

Feed Sacks: An American Fairy Tale Exhibit

I got teary eyed viewing this exhibit because I thought of all those women that make quilts (and clothes) with what they had available – feed sacks. If you aren’t familiar with “feed sacks” there is an explanation in one of the images below. The exhibit had examples of actual feed sacks they used which was amazing!

The 4th image below is a modern quilt honoring those Pioneer women who made quilts from feed sacks and the Pioneer men of the same period.

Trek – Victoria Findlay Wolfe Exhibit

I actually took a LOT of photos of this Victoria Findlay Wolfe exhibit but the photos did not do the experience of the exhibit justice. When you walk into the exhibit it has it’s own large gallery room with high ceilings and you are visually overwhelmed with these HUGE quilts covering “floor to ceiling” with some quilts that spill on to the floor of the gallery.

Manhattan Quilters Guild – “Rebound. Renew. Reimagine.” Exhibit

I really enjoyed this exhibit and fell in love with a recycled denim quilt (Renaissance by Emiko Todo Loeb) in the exhibit which is in one of the images below.

So that is a little on our experience at the International Quilting Museum. Here is a YouTube video (courtesy of the PBS series Craft in America) if you’d like a little more info about this amazing museum.

A couple weeks ago I went on a road trip from Denver, Colorado to Lincoln, Nebraska and attended a “behind the scenes tour” of the International Quilt Museum.

From the museum’s website

The International Quilt Museum’s mission is to build a global collection and audience that celebrate the cultural and artistic significance of quilts. The International Quilt Museum is located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus at 33rd and Holdrege streets. The museum has the world’s largest publicly held quilt collection, dating from the early 1700s to present and representing more than 60 countries.

We had an amazing tour guide, a retired high school teacher, and did the behind the scenes tour with another group of visiting quilters. Here I am about to go on the tour:

Our first stop was the room where they handle quilts in their collections for various archiving activities or setting up for exhibit. The staff of course wear gloves when handling the quilts and we were only allowed to view the quilt they were evaluating from afar:

In the other group on the tour with us, there was a family group who had requested to see ahead one of their relative’s quilts that are part of the International Quilt Museum‘s collection. We chatted with them and their mother/grandmother (who was passed) was a renown quilter and several of her quilts are at the museum. This specific quilt was made for her grandson, now a grown man, and they wanted him to see it in person after all these years. It was a sweet and very emotional family moment for them and I enjoyed chatting with the family and learning more about their family matriarch the renown quilter.

In the room where they archive and evaluate quilts, they had a humorous wallhanging that gave us a smile – a traditional “Sunbonnet Sue” but she was wielding a knife!