coming (not so) soon

detail, Oak Leaf Variant, c. 1860, Kentucky
all photos courtesy of Shelly Zegart

A familiar old quilt will be coming to my collection, but not as soon as I originally thought. This wonderful, folky oak leaf variant was made around 1860 by Mrs. M.E. Poyner of Paducah, Kentucky- also home of the American Quilter's Society (AQS) and the National Quilt Museum. It appears in Kentucky Quilts, 1800-1900 on pages 38 and 39. It is also on the Quilt Index.

I purchased the quilt recently from Shelly Zegart, and was happily surprised to learn it was part of a traveling exhibition called "Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Contect in the Civil War" presented by the American Textile History Museum of Lowell, Massachusetts. The exhibition debuted in Lowell in 2012, and will travel to the New York Historical Society, the Shelburne Museum, and the Nebraska State Historical Society. Of course, I agreed to continue the loan as planned, and the quilt will be touring until June, 2015. I'll have to go visit it, and you can, too.

But wait, there's more! The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, authored by Madelyn Shaw and Lynne Basett. It's available through the American Textile History Museum shop- click here. A second quilt is coming soon from Shelly, and it is equally sensational, but in a whole different way. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow, so stay tuned...