Quilt Museums In The United States

San Jose Museum Of Quilts & Textiles

The permanent collection of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is comprised of 850 textiles, including historic quilts, contemporary art quilts, and textile-based art forms, as well as costumes and garments from world cultures. The Museums collection has gained distinction for its unique art and material culture collection both locally and nationally. An indexed library of reference books and related periodicals, available to researchers by appointment, also supports the permanent collection.

What Makes The National Quilt Museum So Special

The Beatles Quilt by Sisters Pat Holly and Sue Nickels. Photo: Jesse Adams

When Collinsworth speaks about what he thinks is so unique about Paducahs Quilt Museum, he doesnt first mention the fact that it is clearly underrated as an art venue. Instead, he mentions the artists.

If you needed another reason to make your way to Paducahs Quilt Museum, this is it.

Eve Van Cortlandt’s Quilted Whitework Counterpane

Description

Eve Van Cortlandt’s fine white linen quilted counterpane is one of the earliest dated American quilts in existence. The date, “1760” and her initials, “E V C,” are embroidered in blue silk cross-stitch on the quilt lining. Quilted with white linen thread, a delicate pattern of flowers, feathery stems, and low open baskets surround a central quatrefoil medallion. The design is set off by a background of quilted parallel lines just one-eighth inch apart.

Eve was born on May 22, 1736, to Frederick Van Cortlandt and Francena Jay each from families of wealthy and prominent New York landowners. She made her quilt for her dower chest while living in the family home. In 1761, Eve married the Honorable Henry White, a businessman and a member of the Kings Council of the Royal Colony of New York. He became president of the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1772 and remained loyal to the King of England during the Revolution.

When the British evacuated New York in 1783, Henry moved his family to England. Henry White died in London in 1786, and Eve returned to America as a widow, most likely to be near two of her children who lived in New York. Of their five children, two sons were in the British service and remained in London, as did one daughter. Eve died in 1836 at the age of one hundred, having witnessed a century of historic events. Since 1897, the family home in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx has been a museum.

Location

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M Campbell’s Reverse Applique Quilt

Description

Embroidered in dark brown silk cross-stitches and eye-stitches along the top right edge of the center of this quilt is “M. Campbell 1795.” This quilt is a rare dated and signed example of the use of reverse appliqué which is found in the center panel and the eight border motifs. In reverse appliqué, the positions of the pattern and background fabrics are reversed from those of onlaid appliqué. The silhouette of the pattern is cut out of the background fabric, and openings are filled by applying a contrasting fabric from underneath. It was not often used in American quilts. The remainder of the quilt top is of geometric pieced work.

Block printed cotton fabrics of floral prints, stripes, and small geometrics, mostly on brown or tan grounds, were used for the appliqué and piecework. The lining is linen and the filling cotton. All appliquéd motifs are outline quilted along both the inside and outside edges. The white backgrounds, center border, and printed fabric blocks in the outer border are quilted in a diagonal grid and chevron patterns, seven stitches to the inch. M. Campbell’s skillfully worked quilt is a notable example of the reverse appliqué technique.

Location

Quilt Museums Across The Us

Quilt museums help preserve the heritage of quilts and the stories of quilt makers, by offering a place for admirers to see quilts, textiles, garments and tapestries in a gallery setting. But many quilt museums in the U.S. take it a step further by offering education and enrichment opportunities which can help carry on the legacy of quilting in America and around the world. Here is a rundown of some of the top quilt museums in the U.S., by region.

Quilt museums help preserve the heritage of quilts and the stories of quilt makers, by offering a place for admirers to see quilts, textiles, garments and tapestries in a gallery setting. But many quilt museums in the U.S. take it a step further by offering education and enrichment opportunities which can help carry on the legacy of quilting in America and around the world. Here is a rundown of some of the top quilt museums in the U.S., by region.

Note: Many quilt museums across the U.S. have been forced to adjust their hours or close their doors in a changing economy, so make sure you call ahead to confirm before planning a visit.

4. The Kalona Quilt and Textile Museum in Kalona, IA is home to Midwest-made quilts and new exhibits quarterly, as well as an interesting spool cabinet collection.

5. The Great Lakes Quilt Center is located on the campus of Michigan State University Museum in East Lansing, MI.

2. One of the few quilt museums in the south, the Levy County Quilt Museum in Chiefland, FL also sells handmade items.

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Iceland Home Industry Museum

This is the Iceland museum for textiles and fabrics. You will encounter the different machines, fabrics, and handicrafts that are part of Icelandic culture. A unique part of the museum shows how wool is processed from sheep to finished product.

I hope you enjoy this article! If you know other quilt museums that you can share, please write them on the comments so I can add them to this post.

Museo Textil de Oaxaca, México: A few years ago, they had a display of Bill Stechers quilts:

A fiber art museum that truly deserves a mention here is in La Conner WA. Located in a beautiful building in a cute little northwestern town. Well worth a visit.

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado. 200 Violet Street, Unit 140 Golden, CO The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum is a cultural and historical quilt museum in Golden, Colorado. The permanent collection contains over 800 quilts dating back to the 19th century. The museum is also home to the Sandra Dallas Library and a gift shop.

Missouri Quilt Museum Voted Best In The Us

The Missouri Quilt Museum in Hamilton, along with the National Quilt Museum of Paducah, Kentucky and the International Quilt Museum of Lincoln, Nebraska, have been chosen as the top quilt museums in the United States.

The three museums were selected from over 100 quilt museums nationwide by the Fons & Porters Love of Quilting Readers Choice survey, where nearly 2,000 dedicated members of the quilting community cast their votes.

We are overwhelmed to have been chosen along with the National Quilt Museum and the International Quilt Museum as the top quilt museums in the United States, said Dakota Redford, Curator of the Missouri Quilt Museum. We are a relatively new museum, Redford said, and to receive this type of recognition so early in our history is truly unbelievable.

Full details and the complete results of the Readers Choice Survey will appear in the January/February 2023 issue of Fons & Porters Love of Quilting magazine.

The Missouri Quilt Museum is located at 300 E Bird Street in Hamilton, Missouri. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturday. There is an admission charge.

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Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum

Golden, COLocated right down the street from our offices in Golden, Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum was the brainchild of Eugenia Mitchell, a longtime resident with a passion for quilts. In addition to changing exhibits quarterly , the museum offers tailored tours and educational programs for adults and youth. There is also the Sandra Dallas Library, which boasts 6,000 volumes of quilting lore.

Lewis And Clark Nht Visitor Centers And Museums

Visitor Centers and Museums along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

The National Quilt Museum celebrates the ingenuity and creativity of modern quilters and fiber art enthusiasts. Located in the historic downtown of Paducah, KY, the museum was founded in 1991 by Bill and Meredith Schroeder, both quilting enthusiasts who wanted to celebrate their fellow artists and expose the public to a previously underappreciated art form. Sitting just two blocks from the Ohio River, the large statue On the Trail of Discovery depicting Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, a generic Native American man and girl, and Clark’s dog, is featured on the front lawn of the museum.

Museum exhibits rotate 8-10 times per year, providing visitors with a unique experience each visit. Currently, the museum possesses 600 art pieces, though new pieces continue to be added. Traveling exhibits are viewed by over 110,000 people per year, with visitors coming from all 50 states and over 40 countries. Not only does the museum strive to support diversity and versatility in its exhibits, but it also seeks to educate and grow the skills of quilters around the world. For those interested in learning to quilt, workshops are conducted throughout the year for people all skill levels. Especially popular is the annual School Block Challenge which encourages students to create a 16×16 quilt block and gains national participation.

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A Bucket List Of Quilt Museums More Than One Summer Road Trip

by Jennifer Wilder | May 24, 2019 | Almanac Stories, Museums and Historical Places, Places to Visit

Dear Friends,

Storytelling with textiles is a unique blend of art and culture. From technique-specific maker journeys such as the Milwaukee Art Quilters Yo-Yo Challenge to broader cultural storytelling seen in The Migrant Quilt Projects exhibit, Los Desconocidos/The Unknowns at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska quilts are a unique artifact of American life.

Quilts are beautiful they remind us of comfort, home and special people. They are living organisms which can be viewed in a two-dimensional plane, but whose mission is to be used in a three-dimensional life. Not to be irreverent, but quilts bridge MoMA and grandma.

The quilter population is surprisingly diverse although the upper end of the age and education spectrum accounts for a significant percentage of the audience. While honoring the past, these special places will invite new people to tell new stories about how they live their lives.

The research for this blog post was captivating. Each museums story is unique and specific to their place yet fits into the bigger picture of quilts in America. If you cant make it to all of them, please take a web tour through their websites. Youll be inspired!

Go, explore!

International Quilt Study Center And Museum

Lincoln, NEAn extension of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the IQSC has made Lincoln, Nebraska, an undisputed quilting locus. It hosts the largest public collection of quilts in the world, and aims to celebrate the cultural and artistic significance of quilts. Lose yourself for the day at this museum, and leave inspired!

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International Quilt Study Center & Museum

The International Quilt Study Center & Museum is located on the University of Nebraska-Lincolns Campus, and houses the worlds largest publicly held quilt collection. More than 4,000 quilts and related ephemera date from the early 1700s to the present and represent more than 25 countries. IQSCM makes its academic home in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design in the College of Education and Human Sciences.

The Welsh Quilt Center

The Welsh Quilt Center has many unique Welsh quilts for you to view. Their exhibitions are paused until March 2022. When they reopen, you will be able to view Welsh quilts from 1800 to 1945, just one cornerstone of their collection.

This is a mills textile museum in Lancashire, UK. This is a very interesting place to visit if you are interested in the history of fabrics, especially learning how they were put together during the Industrial Revolution.

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Aqs Quiltweek And The National Quilt Museum

AQS QuiltWeek is an event that takes place annually in the spring in Paducah. During AQS QuiltWeek, visitors can take quilt classes, attend lectures, and shop for fabrics, quilting tools, and more. There are also quilt exhibits and quilt contests.

During AQS QuiltWeek, the museum hosts an auction and reception for the museum members.

Quilters Guild Museum In York

Even though this monumental museum is closed to the public during the remainder of 2021 and possibly in 2022, their collection remains viewable online. This is the flagship showing program of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles and has many beautiful items for you to view online to incorporate into your own design practices.

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Where Is Paducahs Quilt Museum And How To Get There

The National Quilt Museum is located in the beautiful and artsy town of Paducah, Kentucky. The best way to get to the museum is by car. Its about 140 miles from Nashville and 180 miles from Memphis .

Paducah is often one of the stops on American Queens steamboats itineraries on the Ohio River, and the museum is usually offered as one of the free excursions for passengers.

Address: 215 Jefferson Street, Paducah, KY 42001, US

National Quilt Museum Virtual Tour

The National Quilt Museum is an art museum that exhibits fiber art and quilting from around the world. It is the only museum in the United States dedicated to quilts and quiltmakers.

The museum exhibits a rotating selection from the museums collection of over 600 quilts. There is also dedicated exhibit space for rotating fiber art exhibits.

The museum offers educational opportunities and hosts forums and conferences celebrating quilt projects from across the country.

In 2008, the U.S. Congress designated the museum as The National Quilt Museum of the United States, bringing recognition to the quality and significance of the institution.

The museums Mission is:

The National Quilt Museum promotes the growth and expansion of quilting bybringing the art form to new audiences around the world through exhibitions,education programs and quilt preservation efforts and advocacy.

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The National Quilt Museum

The National Quilt Museum is the doorway to the contemporary quilt experience – through exhibitions and workshops by emerging and experienced quilt artists who are implementing creative ideas and evolving approaches to fiber art. The Museum, located in the UNESCO Creative City of Paducah, Kentucky, is the gateway to the discovery of quilts, quilt making and quilt artists!

PLAN YOUR VISIT: The National Quilt Museum, 215 Jefferson St., Paducah, Kentucky

Open Monday-Saturday, 10 AM-5 PM year-round. Also, open Sundays , 1-5 PM. Preview current and upcoming exhibits below in the 2022 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE.

TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR of The National Quilt Museum.

Ticket Price For The National Quilt Museum

A ticket to the museum costs $12 for adults, $11 for people over 62, and $5 for students. Military personnel, children under the age of 12, and museum members enter for free.

Tickets are available for purchase at the front desk of the museum the day you want to visit. There is no advance ticket purchase online.

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Support The National Quilt Museum

• Support The National Quilt Museum

The National Quilt Museum supports the sustainability and growth of todays quilting community by bringing the work of todays quilters to new audiences worldwide. The museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization primarily funded through the generosity of people and companies passionate about quilting.

Chojun Textile & Quilt Art Museum

The Chojun Textile & Quilt Art Museums goals are of preserving Korean traditional patchwork quilting techniques, which are gradually being forgotten, and of exhibiting other countries textile crafts. The Chojun Textile & Quilt Museum in Namsan-dong, central Seoul, is the only museum in Korea that displays local and foreign textile art.

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The National Quilt Museum Collection

Our collection is made up of some of the most extraordinary quilts ever produced. The majority of the quilts in our collection are award winners from regional and national contests. Others have been chosen for a number of different reasons including their uniqueness or their historic relevance. The collection is quite diverse, including quilts of many different styles from quilters throughout the world. If you would like to get information on the collection, the museum produces a collection book with information on each of the quilts. The book is available through our online shop.

How do we choose the quilts for our collection? The museum receives thousands of submissions for collection consideration each year. A collection committee made up of well respected quilters and appraisers makes the final decision on which quilts will ultimately become part of the collection. Only one exception to this process exists. Each year the winning quilts at the AQS Paducah Quilt Show are added to the museum’s collection without having to go through the typical process for selection.We take great pride in the quality and diversity of the museum collection and we will continue to expand it as time goes forward.

Best Places To See Amazing Quilts

Quilts are hot and not just for keeping toasty at night. The humble linen has evolved into an art form that’s as likely to be displayed on a wall as on a bed. “It’s pretty broad, from the extreme fine arts world to the grassroots,” says Ricky Tims, one of the world’s top fiber artists. The art form celebrates Quilt Week, one of its biggest annual events, April 23-26 in Paducah, Ky. Tims shares favorite places to see this “soft art” with Larry Bleiberg for USA TODAY.

National Quilt MuseumPaducah, Ky.Even when this city isn’t celebrating Quilt Week, visitors can get a fabric fix at this museum, which has what may be the world’s top quilt displays, Tims says. It’s one of the reasons Paducah won the honor of being named a UNESCO Creative City. “You feel as if you’ve walked into a cathedral and your hat should be off. You’re absolutely in awe of the work that’s exhibited there.” 270-442-8856 quiltmuseum.org

Gee’s Bend Quilting CooperativeGee’s Bend, Ala.The famed African-American quilting community of tiny Gee’s Bend has been featured on U.S. postage stamps and in international museum exhibits. Visitors can meet the quilters and buy works from pot holders to full-size, abstract fabric murals. “Their designs have an amazing graphic quality,” Tims says. 334-573-2323 Alabama.travel

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