Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum

                  The Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum's current exhibit, Family and Friends: Quilts and Their Collections, is amazing.  There are three similar quilts (circa 1860 to 1880) made by mother, daughter, and neighbor.  This first quilt (circa 1860) was made by a member of the Brubaker/Keller family from Lancaster PA. 

The next quilt was made by Fanny S. Bucher circa 1860 (neighbor to the quiltmaker above).  These two quilts share many of the same fabrics and patterns.

This last diamond quilt was made by Barbara Bucher Snyder (daughter of Fanny Bucher) circa 1880.

It was quite a site to see these three quilts hanging side-by-side.  The current issue of Quiltmania has great pictures of these quilts.




Also exhibited are three Joseph's Coat quilts from the 1890's.  The exhibit placard explains 'Although similar patterned and colored quilts were made in other areas, this particular arrangement containing the six vertical stripes repeated and surrounded on four sides by the same striped slanted borders appears to have been made exclusively by Lancaster County Mennonite and Reformed women.'  Note the quilting in the close-up (poor color representation) - alternating stripes of braid and unique quilting pattern (same format holds true for the slanted border stripes).

The current exhibit of the Museum's Esprit Amish quilt collection is wonderful.  The quilts are exhibited in glass cases which includes encased lighting, so pictures aren't worthy of posting.  The Friends and Family exhibit runs thru December 31, 2010.

This last picture is of the trip's stash enhancement (sitting on my new-old porch bench snagged at the fairground antique market, griffin too).  The stars aligned to plop me at Sauder's on the first day of their truckload sale (after fabric shopping at Zook's at 8:00 AM)!  My luggage earned a 'heavy' tag and I had the sore muscles to prove it! The pile on the left is from Sauder's 5 yd flat-fold table ($2.19/yd).  There are two pieces missing from the picture that were enlisted in a new project - fodder for my next post.