We are still in Nebraska, and not as far up the road as we were aiming for, but wait until you see the pictures I got today in Lincoln, Nebraska! This is why we stopped there:
Our reason for staying in Lincoln, NE was so that we could visit the International Quilt Museum!Excitedly waiting for the doors to openWe took a docent-led tour of the 2nd-floor galleries.
The Terrie Mangat gallery:
There was a whole room of just this artist, Terrie Mangat, whom I absolutely adored! This is from her Fireworks series of art quilts.I love her vibrant use of color.Flowers with sticks in front representing stemsEmbellishments on one of Terrie Mangat’s quiltsShe also did a series of paintings of her new home in Taos, NM, and made quilts of her paintings.
The Porter and Fons gallery:
This quilt in the next room caught my eye because…It was made as a representation of the Northport crossing to Washington Island, just north of where we live in Door County! This was made by quilter and teacher, Marianne Fons.This is called Sexy Hexie because the centers of the stars are hexagons as are the blocks the stars are in…and this was done by Liz Porter, the other part of the Porter and Fons team.This is another one by them that I like. Anyone who knows me knows that I love bright, vivid colors!This was hand-quilted for Marianne Fons, and I think I counted about 14 stitches to the inch. Really good hand quilting is 12 stitches per inch!Porter and Fons wrote the most famous textbook on how to quilt!A Porter and Fons sampler from their book
There’s a cool story about Porter and Fons. They met in a beginner’s quilt class in the 1970s and became friends. They eventually became such good quilters that they began teaching classes themselves, wrote books, had a TV show, etc!
Modern Meets Modern:
This was another room in the museum. The quilt on the left is from about the 1930s and the one on the right is modern. The point of the exhibit is that old quilts were modern in their time and that elements of the old can be found in the new.The lightbox display on the floor shows that when they shined a light through this quilt, there were letters underneath the circles.Mark was enjoying the exhibits as much as I was. I’m so lucky to have a husband who loves to go to quilt museums and stores with me!This feathered star quilt was Mark’s favorite, although it was out in a hallway because it wasn’t deemed quite good enough to be in the gallery. If it weren’t for the stains (due to someone not understanding how to take care of a quilt), it would have been in the gallery with the quality of the quilting it has.This almost looks modern, but it’s not.This older quilt had a section of curved rows……and it inspired one of the Porter and Fons team (I can’t remember which) to make the same pattern with straight rows.
Painted Quilts from the Hopi Mesas:
There was a room of painted Hopi quilts. They painted a lot of kachina designs on fabric and tied the quilts. The smaller one on the left was made by a 12-year-old boy under the tutelage of his grandmother.
The Reading Room:
There was a reading room that had a display of doll beds with miniature quilts on them. I was fascinated to see this miniature crazy quilt!Also in the reading room was this chair upholstered with quilted fabric with hundreds or thousands of tiny triangles!
After walking around the museum, Mark waited while I walked through the gift shop and picked out some souvenirs of our visit to the International Quilt Museum. What a guy!
We had hoped to make it to Sidney, Nebraska by tonight, but when we stopped for gas in North Platte, it was already 6:30 and dark, so we decided to find something local. While we were at the gas station, we were able to fill our main propane tank. We’re not in the best campground, but their water is on, so we filled our water tank. We are now all set!
