Infinite Variety - 300 Years of Red and White Quilts

I had the pleasure of visiting New York City this week, accompanied by my good friend and fellow quilt enthusiast Tammie, to have a whirlwind quilting extravaganza of sorts.

The Folk Art Museum presented a collection of 650 red and white quilts that spanned three centuries.   The exhibit was actually an 80th birthday present from the collector Joanna Rose to herself (and to the quilting world).  It was a remarkable show, the design of the hangers in the Park Avenue Armory was art in itself.

If you quilt at any level, or even enjoy looking at the textiles, you cannot help but be in awe of the handiwork that went into each and every one of them.

There were simple, contemporary patterns that let the quilting of the piece be the focus (look closely at the striped quilt) and traditional patterns.

The piecing and movement of the quilts blew us away.  And remember, these were constructed before the days of modern quilting gadgets such as rotary cutters and fancy rulers.  And the quilting on these were certainly not done on any long arm machine with computer design!

Just about every pattern was represented from tiny piecing, to applique and redwork.

I hope you enjoyed some of the photos that I snapped at the show.  It was very inspiring and makes me want to do a simple color combination quilt.  What do you think about the red and white quilts?  Does this collection inspire you to quilt in red and white?  Or to hand quilt?

Happy quilting!