Exhibit and Symposium at the DAR Museum

In mid-November the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in D.C.

held a one-day seminar A Piece of Her Mind: Culture and Technology in American Quilts in

conjunction with their exhibit of the same title that is closing at the end of December.

https://www.dar.org/museum/exhibitions

Exhibit pictures

Detail of a quilt by Anna Catherine Markey Garnhart

The grape leaves are reverse applique

An Indian chintz spread on a bed. Wonderful to see the detail of how it's printed

Paisley wrapper

The exhibit explored how popular culture from politics to newspaper stories

influenced quilts. Above and below two quilts with political textiles from

Presidential Elections.

A Henry Clay campaign ribbon from the 1844 Presidential race.

Detail of a lovely small bedcover. The line on the right is a border

of appliqued pillar print. Just a small sliver.

At the seminar we learned much about botanical prints.

More on that tomorrow.

I've always loved this quilt by Mary King.

who made sure we knew she made it.

The birds and chicks have always fascinated me. Where in the world would

she get the idea for an image like this?

Curator Alden O'Brien had a clue.

Look at this woven coverlet with very similar imagery.

Cultural influences, indeed.

Brilliant!

And the exhibit included many cases with open storage full of fabric

and related textiles.

You could spend hours in the exhibit room.

Tomorrow: The Papers