MFA Quilts and Color

Each block center was embroidered

After recommendations from my mother and several friends, I made it to the Quilts and Color display at the MFA.  I attended with a few of my friends from a variety of quilting backgrounds.

Many of the quilts were from the mid to late 1800s.  The colors on them were astounding.  I hope my quilts look this good a century later.  All that hand stitching and quilting was terrific.  

We all enjoyed the collection, although the quilters among us had a few complaints.  No one was there with white gloves to show us the back of the quilts.  Only one quilt's information plaque included a photo of the back.  Items were obviously hand quilted, but there was no indication if it was hand pieced, too, or if any of it was machine stitched.  The blocks were named in some quilts, but not others.  I had to go home and google the difference between back-to-front and knife-edge finished edge.  (For those as ignorant as I - back-to-front is as it sounds:  the back and front of the quilt are sewn together.  Knife edge, from what I can find, is an additional piece of fabric, sewn to the top edge of the quilt similar to a modern binding, then pulled around and stitched to the back of the quilt.)

Please excuse the crummy photos - my camera doesn't do well in low light.

Top row:  Colorful Stars of Bethlehem; an amazing applique quilt, one of several log cabin quilts
Bottom row: the navy blue was insanely sharp on this 1800s quilt; a row of high-contrast quilts;
I loved the black/white/brown quilt that had red quilting

A few members of our group ended up answering questions from other attendees on basic information about quilts, the process, what blocks were in the quilt and the time it probably required to finish a quilt.  (So it was kind of neat to know all this going in!)

I kept picking a new favorite quilt throughout the day.  I was drawn to details on several quilts:  the stitching, the colors, the composition, the sheer magnitude of the work involved.  In the end, this log cabin quilt remained my favorite.  There was silk, cotton, velvet.  Each little block had 21 pieces and most pieces looked as if they were 1/4" width.  So tiny!  So many pieces!  I wish I had taken a close-up photo, too.  I was so impressed.

We all had a good time; we even got to check out the Magna Carta as an added bonus.  I've been told I need to organize another trip to the MFA (some time when the weather isn't so nice out).