The
drawing for beautiful "Stars in the Garden"
quilt was held at the end of p
Fall
Family Day, 1999p. The winning ticket belonged to Alan Rose of Monterey.
Alan had purchased 10 tickets at the Monterey Store during the
summer. He was delighted
and agreed to loan the quilt back to the
Monterey
Piecemakers in October so they could display it at the quilt
show at Berkshire Community College. A total of $ 3,263 was raised.
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|
The finished, queen-sized quilt
|
There are many
quilts in the museum collection, but most are
"whole cloth" quilts. One exception, which can be seen in the
Children's
Bedroom has a feathered star pattern. So, a star motif
was chosen as a central theme of the quilt. |
Since most of the quilters are also keen gardeners, and indeed, form a
volunteer gardening crew at the museum, it was decided to incorporate
flowers into the design. While the pattern was the same for each corner,
it was up to the embroiderer to select which stitches and shades of blue
to use, making each corner subtly different.
Detail showing embroidered
flowers |
|
Detail of traditional feather
pattern used on the corners & found in quilts in the museum |
 |
Mary Kate
Jordan, a skilled embroiderer, worked with museum director,
Anita Caroll Weldon to incorporate elements of embroidery from the
museum's textile collection into the design. Mary Kate also researched
18th century embroidery techniques and taught the group stitches from
the Deerfield
style. |
Unusually for modern quilts, but in keeping with its
connection to the museum, the quilt was hand-pieced, hand-embroidered
and hand-quilted. A labor of love, but also one enjoyed immensely by all
the women who contributed to it. |
Detail
of quilting using the feather pattern |
The
Bidwell House extends deep appreciation to the following women who
designed and made the quilt, as well as conducted a great sales effort
to raise that money. |
Marcia Doelmann
Pam Johnson
Gige O'Connell
Barbara Tryon
Carol Zarlin |
Jan Emmons
Mary Kate Jordan
Glynis Oliver
Anita Carroll Weldon
|
Thanks also to "The Pumpkin
Patch", Lee for donation of batting and selling raffle tickets, and to
The
Monterey General Store for allowing us to occupy their
front porch each summer weekend to sell tickets. |
