Quilts from America's Flower Garden

[Ill...@qconline.com]

This exhibit is now at the Putnam Museum in Davenport IA
(until this weekend, I don't know where it goes next). The Museum of
American Folk Art organized the exhibition with major funding from our
old friends at Northern "The Quilted Bathroom Tissue." If it comes to
your area, do go see it.
The 24 quilts are all inspired by flower gardens. Some quilts
are actual representations of a garden, some quilts are
impressionistic, some use floral fabrics with traditional designs, all
are beautifully done. I saw applique, embroidery, quilted spiderwebs,
tiny, intricate flowers, large showy flowers, a feed sack quilt,
traditional piecing, quilted bees lurking in the background,
stencilling, 200+ Hoffman fabrics, silks, cottons, a picket fence, an
impressionist painting looking quilt and I'm still not done describing
everything.
Locally, the quilts were displayed around a botanical exhibit
entitled Wild About Plants. This hands-on project is a collaboration
between The Brooklyn Children's Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic
Garden. An interesting presentation about plants and their
connectedness with our lives, it kept my kids interested while I
looked at the quilts.

Now I'm all inspired for the new year,
Mary in Rock Island IL