Blast From the Past

In 2004, I stored a lot photos on Yahoo. As part of closing down their photo site, Yahoo kindly moved them to Flickr for me ... giving me reason to revisit the past and take another look at a very special event and exhibition.

In February, along with 400 other quilters, I attended a preview luncheon at The Henry Ford Museum for their exhibit, Quilting Genius.



During the luncheon, the curator explained that their goal was to showcase 30 show-stopping quilts from their collection. They did not disappoint. There were wonderful examples of piecing, appliqué, embroidery and broderie perse.



For me, the highlight was my introduction to the Susan McCord quilts.



Susan McCord was a 19th century quilter, the wife of a dairy farmer and a holistic herbalist. Of all the quilts she was known to have made, most are in the museum's collection. Her earlier quilts are pieced with lots of tiny hexagons or triangles. She also made crazy quilts and appliqué quilts. Here are some of my favorite details. (click, click, click for larger images).





Her later quilts featured incredible, original vines--as borders or as the main design element.



Vines is the best known and most traveled of the McCord quilts, but this one--called Branches--was and is my personal favorite.



Even though my photos seem now to capture as much of the event itself as the quilts in the exhibit--there are precious few quilter-free shots--it was fun to revisit that day. If you'd like to see more, check out my (new) Flickr set, Quilting Genius.

I guess I'm not the only one that thinks this exhibit is worth re-visiting. Although The Henry Ford didn't produce and sell a catalog and couldn't extend the short run of the show, despite it's overwhelming popularity, they still have information about it, here, on their site, including their own online exhibit.