catalogue now available

The catalogue for the exhibition "Collecting New York Beauty Quilts: Bill Volckening's Passion" is now available. For details, click here.

Collecting New York Beauty Quilts by The Volckening Collection 

Sneak Peak Pic from San Jose

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles posted this photo on Facebook yesterday. It's a sneak peak at "Collecting New York Beauty Quilts, Bill Volckening's Passion", an exhibition of quilts from my collection, which opens Saturday.

San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles is the first museum in the United States to focus exclusively on quilts and textiles as an art form. The museum celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2012. A printed exhibition catalogue will soon be available. For more info about the museum including hours and location, click here.

Up They Go!

Nancy Bavor took some pictures today during the installation of the exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Thank you, Nancy!

Wow, this is really happening! I don't think it's really sunk in yet. What an honor! Exhibition opens July 31st, and catalogue will soon be available. Stay tuned.

Caption Contest / Giveaway

What's going on with Lulu in this picture? Leave a comment with your best caption - one caption per person please - and enter to win a copy of my soon-to-be-released catalogue for the exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Quilts. I will do a random drawing at the end of the week, and the winner will receive a copy - hot off the press!

Easy

Good museum exhibitions look easy, but they are not. The process can take several years, but we had less than a year to prepare the "Collecting New York Beauty Quilts" exhibition, scheduled to open on July 31st at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.

In reality, it all started almost 25 years ago when I bought my first quilt from Shelly Zegart, but this exhibition was first conceived after the feature article by Mary Kate Karr-Petras in Quilters Newsletter Magazine last year. Nancy Bavor, a board member of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles (SJMQT), brought the magazine to Deborah Corsini, curator at SJMQT. Shortly after that, I was invited to exhibit. Most of the time, the exhibitions are planned farther in advance, but they just happened to be looking for an exhibition of traditional quilts, and I was in the right place at the right time, able to deliver the goods.

Since then, there's been a whirlwind of activity with these quilts. I documented and photographed them, had them appraised, and had sleeves sewn on the backs. Each one was tagged, an inventory list was made, copy was written for the museum display tags, and a 40-page, self-published catalogue was produced.

The quilts were boxed up and are now en route! On one hand, I'm relieved to get them out the door. On the other hand, I will be eager to hear that they've arrived safely. When the quilts are mounted for display and visitors come to see the exhibition, I hope they'll think we made it look easy. 

Ladies Art Company No. 488, "Suspension Bridge"

Just last week, I found this quilt and realized I'd had it for a couple years but never really photographed it. So, I got a picture, and today received some information that helped identify the quilt. Connie Chunn, who presented a study center about the Ladies Art Company at the 2010 American Quilt Study Group Seminar, sent me a copy of LAC No. 488, the "Suspension Bridge" pattern.

Looks like a fairly close match, even though the quilt in the diagram has a slightly different configuration. The original design called for an 18" block. My quilt has a 15" block. However, it is the same number of points and same block design.

The pattern was published in 1922, well before this quilt was made in the 1930s. There were several variants with similar designs, such as Broken Circle (Clara Stone), Sunflower (KC Star), and Sunburst (Lithgow). The block can be found in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, #2663.

Busted!

Lulu is a little thief. Don't ever leave money sitting around- she'll steal it. This morning there was some money on the counter, and I caught her red-handed when she was trying to knock the money to the floor. She got it to the edge of the counter when she was caught. The total, $23- but the look on her face, priceless. Busted Lulu!

Exhibition on a Table

Thank you to The Quilt Complex for the idea of tagging the quilts

The quilts are almost ready for the upcoming exhibition "Collecting New York Beauty Quilts- Bill Volckening's Passion" at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.

exhibition on a table

Sleeved, tagged, and stacked, the quilts will soon be on their way. Of course, Lulu had to help. Maybe she would like to go to San Jose, too!