American Quilt Museum

I thought before I’d finished with my trip to the American Quilt Museum that I would show you these pictures of it as I know some readers love quilts and some Folk Art.

The American Quilt Museum shows artefacts and information on the history of America from the early settlers through to the twentieth century.

The exhibitions show the highly varied array of American traditions but I only photographed a few as time was tight and it was very dim in some of the rooms.

Folk Art is generally a bit of a misunderstood term but in this museum they use it to mean the artistic heritage of ordinary folks living in pre-industrial America.

In one room, painted a striking red, is the display of home decoration made ‘by the people, for the people’. The guide explained how portraits were painted by travelling ‘artists’ who worked quickly and simply to keep the cost down, thus making a portrait attainable to the poorer classes. That’s why they look naive and plain (sometimes more than others).

The museum has over 200 quilts, although only 50 are on display at any one time.

This ‘giraffe’ here is actually from a fairground carousel which is why it’s neck is a bit short!

One thing I love about places like these is the wealth of inspiration it fires in the imagination.

I made a few colour palettes from things I’d seen, like this set of old sewing threads, for future design work.

I’ve got a feeling that this is a Kaffe quilt but as I was whizzing about at this point, I never made a note.

Lovely colours though 🙂

 Let’s finish with this super-cute baby bed with a tiny quilt, pillows and netting – I hope it was for a doll and not a real baby!

I’d definitely go back again as I only scratched the surface of what it has to offer – I think Bath in general calls for a longer visit sometime especially as I hear they’ve opened an Anthropologie there and you know how much I like Anthro!