Quilts at the Great American Dollhouse Museum

Last week we traveled, and in our travels we spent nearly a whole day at The Great American Dollhouse Museum in Danville, Kentucky (about 20 miles south of Lexington). It was such a treat to visit with the gracious owner, Lori Kagan-Moore, and some of her family. The museum was featured recently on a local TV station and can be seen on YouTube. Lori permits photos in the museum, and I took several, although reflections were a challenge. I'm posting four of them here -- all of quilts, since that is my current focus. More to come, I promise! Poke the photos for a larger view.

Although the clothing isn't quite right, I think this scene was in the Shaker Village.

There are two quilts in the photo, one fabric print folded on the floor and one stitched on the bed. This house boasted a beautiful rug in every room. I wish I could remember more about the house. After exposure to hundreds of houses and thousands of beautiful rooms, my memory box overflowed! Here is a pieced and printed quilt. Can't recall which house this was.

The next scene is from a series depicting the days of the underground railroad. The little girl is telling the runaway under the bed to keep still, as the authorities have come to the house. The quilt appears to be printed fabric with stitch marks added with ink.

More about The Great American Dollhouse Museum when we get unpacked and sorted out!

From the road ...

Gosh, a jump drive, a netbook, a motel (or McDonald's) with free WiFi, and wow! the blog goes on. I sometimes love modern technology. Here are a couple more quilts. The orange one will be in the mini "show". The other two will deck the walls. The clamps are holding folded quilts. There will be several displayed on a shelf in the shop and more piled in stacks in the owner's studio apartment. What quilter doesn't have more quilts than fit a space? All it took was a 5" x 7" (roughly) piece of fabric, some folding, and several swabs of glue to hold it all together. They look pretty realistic when stacked.

The next two photos are of the quilt show. I'd thought to angle the display frames, but then the backside quilts were hidden. Straight on is not as interesting, but all of the quilts can be seen.

The last photo shows the workroom curtains with some of the smaller quilts hanging. I'm using tiny, clear sticky dots (brand name Zots, I think). They should pull off easily later on, or so the box says. Meanwhile, they are stuck tight. I think they can stay up when the shop is moved to the YMCA for display at the real life quilt show.

Tomorrow we're going to visit the Great American Dollhouse Museum in Danville, Kentucky. I can hardly wait!

Pack up your ... whatever!

I got to thinking that all quilters need a bag to carry projects and supplies, so today I made some. They are unbleached muslin over lightweight cardstock front, back and bottom and embelished with 1/8" ribbon and tiny cuts of fabric. Poke the picture to see them better. (When I poked it to check, I noticed some tiny threads that need to be clipped. I think next time I make these I'll turn a tiny hem in the top edge.) While assembling, I found it useful to have a block made from two pieces of 1/4" foamcore board stuck inside to form the shape. I cut the rectangles of cardstock, scored the two bottom folds, and glued them to the muslin and trimmed around the edges. This photo shows the cardstock ready to bend around the block. The muslin side is inside. The four in back have had the muslin glued on the outside. I cut it a quarter inch longer than the height of the side so there would be something to fold under to make a nice bottom.

Here's the block being pulled out of the wrapped bag. The narrow sides do not have cardstock; they can fold naturally.

The next photo shows today's quilt in progress. I found that by cutting the squares to near finished size and gluing them on a backing, I could scrunch them up a bit, so they look as if there is batting. These blocks were cut from a piece of fabric printed with them, although I rearranged them better to suit a mini pattern.

Here is the finished quilt. It turned out to be 6" x 8" rather than the 5" x 7" I'd planned because I added a border (folded bias tape) and then added some lace on top of that for extra texture. It's a rather strong design and will likely go on the wall in the display room as it is too big for the display frames. This quilt is all glue. Not a stitch on it.