I have wanted to go to the Vermont Quilt Festival for ever so long! A real dream of mine. I had heard so much about it for years. This year my very good friend Jo Diggs was the "featured quilter", she was going to have an exhibition of 54 of her wonderful landscapes, quilts and garments. She borrowed our "Stripes and Spots" (fish) for the exhibition, we had delivered it to her in Maine last fall. So we decided we should go, see everything, then be there to help her pack up and then we could bring our fish home.
Stripes and Spots 2006 - Jo Diggs
It is going to take several posts to really do the festival justice.
Pan American Exposition Quilt - 1901 Collection of Debra Garna
One of the highlights for me was seeing a redwork quilt top in the antique quilt exhibition. When I saw this quilt from a distance, I thought it looked familiar. I had seen it in a book and now there it was, the "Pan-American Exposition, 1901" quilt. I went on the gallery talk given by the curators Debra Grana and Sharon Waddell. The exhibit was called "For Fellowship, Love and Farewell". This quilt top commemorated the exposition where President McKinley was assassinated, it has the block "our martyred President".
My connection to this quilt comes from my maternal Grandparents, Hester Lydia and David McKinley Mitchell, my Grandfather was William McKinley's cousin. They had gone to Buffalo, NY on their honeymoon and were supposed to have tea with President McKinley the day he was assassinated.
The quilt has some interesting blocks - the upside down house and a space trip to the moon...little did they know! More quilts and stories to come soon!