American Folk Art Museum ~ Part 2

In addition to the figural and object folk art I posted about yesterday, the American Folk Art Museum had a lovely collection of quilts on display when I visited. I thought I would share some of my favorites ~ visit here to see more of their quilt collection and read more details about the individual quilts and their history. What are your favorites?

The images above depict a wonderful, very unique crazy quilt ~ each of the inset vignettes show a different horse and rider. I don't know that I have seen a crazy quilt with round motifs used ~ most of those I am familiar with look more like the surrounding background. The stitch work on this piece was just gorgeous.

The next two images are a section and a detail from the same quilt ~ a star pattern with a tiny engraved image in the center of each star. I love the colors and patterns used in the design of this quilt. I wonder where the engraved images came from ~ were they recycled from something else? Were they cut from a piece of patterned cloth or was there a way to apply such an image to cloth? They certainly didn't have ink jet printers and iron on release paper back then!

The following two images are examples of a technique called trapunto ~ the design is created by stitching a pattern on a quilt sandwich (3 layers: quilt top, batting, and the quilt backing), then stuffing the motifs with small amounts of cotton from the back to create a subtle design.

{beautiful white on white trapunto quilt}

{Interesting combination of pieced quilt design and trapunto}

Many of the quilts I saw included typography ~ I find this type of quilt some of the most interesting and meaningful as many quilters included either names of those creating the quilt or names of family members.

{handwritten script that looks like it was applied with a fountain or dip pen}

{names were embroidered on this quilt}

{Tiny appliques applied by 79 year old Maria make up the lettering on this quilt!}

{Image from here}

This beautiful quilt is pieced together using a zillion pieces of colored felt. I couldn't figure out how the pieces fit together so perfectly ~ whether they were attached to a backing or not. The piece was displayed under glass, so it was difficult to get a good photo, but below are a few close ups that show the intricate cut work and stitching on the quilt.

This last quilt is a traditional log cabin design in a just gorgeous color palette ~ the photos don't do it justice! I've only shown a small sample of the American Folk Art Museum's collection ~ if you get the opportunity, do visit yourself ~ it is an inspirational way to spend an afternoon!

If you could have one of these quilts for your own, which would you choose? I don't know if I could just choose one!