Billings Farm & Museum's Quilt Exhibition 2021

Contemporary Quilts made by Windsor County Quilters and Challenge Quilts by the Heart of the Land Quilt Guild are featured in the 35th Annual Quilt Exhibition at Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, Vermont. The display is open daily from July 17 - August 22, 2021.

Here are just a few of the quilts that currently hang in the exhibit.

"Farm Friends" made by Lynne Weatherill is machine-pieced, paper-pieced, hand-quilted, and tied. It is her first paper-piecing project and she found it challenging at first. There are as many as 57 pieces in just one animal.

"Berkeley" by Linda Diak is appliqued and machine-quilted. It is a portrait of a Berkshire pig and is based on a photo posted to the Billings Farm & Museum website. Berkeley is no longer "on the planet" but he lives on in memory. The quilter was able to use supplies she had on hand during the pandemic to create this quilt.

"Timeless Ties" by Sue Cass is a memory quilt made to honor the deceased husband of her friend, Patricia. Seventy ties were used in its creation. The quilter chose to make Dresden Plate and Fan blocks and used leftover scraps of ties to create the borders. The quilt is machine-pieced, appliqued and machine quilted.

As always, we enjoyed seeing the fine work of Windsor County quilters! There is always a lot of variety in this show. We especially liked the farm-related quilts this year and we like quilts that come with a "story." 

The Billings Farm & Museum  is located at 69 Old River Road in Woodstock, Vermont and is well worth the trip. Check out their website at www.billingsfarm.org

Christmas in July

With sweltering temperatures outside, my thoughts turn to ice cream and Christmas, maybe not in that order. I am thinking of a quilt I made in 2014. It features a Redwork embroidery motif of birds and holly. The design is a very enlarged version of a line drawing that was published in the Cunnings catalog, a late 19th century catalog from which one could order designs for outline stitch embroidery (another name for Redwork). The catalog features thousands of designs or so it seems! There are many monograms, flowers, owls, Japanese-themed motifs and other designs.

Anyhow, this particular image of birds appealed to me, being a bird-lover and all. I enjoyed hand-quilting this quilt. Anything to help me dwell on the delights of cooler weather and the coziness that Christmas holidays bring when it is snowing outside and we do not have to go anywhere. At that time, it is fun to listen to Christmas music and do some quilting in the den. As humans, we always want something else. In winter, we long for summer but when summer arrives, it is often overrated because of torrential rains, thunderstorms, and high temperatures. For now, I am dreaming of Old Man Winter visiting again as Jack Frost coats our windowpanes in frosty designs!