Sunday, April 09, 2006

Quilts, Turkeys and Tulips

Friday my good friend and I spent the day on our annual trip to the Tulip Fields of Skagit Valley, the La Conner Quilt Museum and ended the day meeting an internet friend at a quilt show.

La Conner Quilt Museum

In 1891 the Gaches family built the mansion as a family residence. Over the years it's been sold several times becoming a hospital and apartments. In 1973 a fire broke out and gutted the mansion. Wanting to preserve the mansion local citizens formed a non-profit org, purchasing the mansion in 1974 restoring it in 1978. In 1997 the La Conner Quilt museum opened in the mansion, has since acquired ownership, is the only quilt museum in the PNW and 1 of 12 in the US. The 1st floor retains it's turn of the century decor. The 2nd floor contains the museum exhibit and sales gallery. The 3rd floor includes additional display space for contemporary art quilts. The current exhibit of Hawaiian Quilts are quite stunning and the folded log Cabins interesting.


For the Cat lovers... while this looks very celtic it's actually reverse applique.

A Fireman by day, a Quilter by night. This gentleman's handquilting is so even with very small stitches. This one grabbed my attention as I love a red and black quilt.


The quilt on the bottom half of the page was inspired by the drawing made by her granddaughter.


We all ought to weigh in like this. LOL


Folded Log Cabin...I'm not much on log cabins. Each blocks center was a garment label and each block had a label as well.

From the quilt show.


I thought these were Maverics.

I laughed when I heard a lady refer to the one on the left as looking like uterus's. The name on the quilt was bikini .... , however to me I thought g-string. Concentric Triangles?????

There were the usual number of traditional, Baltimore album and wedding rings at the show. I used to take mega pictures, now they need to catch my attention.

Tom Turkey, what a handsome fella this was, guarding his band of ladies. As we walked down the street to the Quilt Musuem he favored us with puffing up and spreading his tail feathers. Not wild turkeys, just turkeys roaming free down the streets of town.

And I came home with 27 batik FQ's to go with the 12 in my stash for granddaughters wedding quilt.

4 comments:

The Calico Cat said...

Thanks for sharing the quilts! (I have been to 1 of those 12 museums, the on in Virginia... Nice road trip as it is fairly close to Skyline Drive national park.)

Laura said...

Thanks for the quilt show! My favorite was of Tom Turkey, what fun having turkeys walking up and down the street.

Joanne said...

Great pics! I'm not in to the artsy ones, but loved the reverse appliqued cat and of course the Hawaiian! And -- the lady weighing herself -- wish I'd thought of that!

Holly said...

Dona, I love La Conner! My hubby was stationed at Whidbey Island back in the late 80's and we'd go to La Conner all the time. There's a shop that sells little would boxes with slide-on covers... I buy some every time I go there. Sounds like you had a great time :)