May News from The New England Quilt Museum
Opening Reception for Women’s Writes: Signature Quilts and Their Stories
May 15, 1pm
Join us on May 15 at 1pm for the opening reception for our groundbreaking exhibition on women’s material history, Women’s Writes: Signature Quilts and Their Stories. The curators for the exhibit, NEQM Acting Curator Laura Lane and quilt historian Lorie Chase, have assembled an extensive group of signature quilts, drawn from both the museum’s own permanent collection and borrowed from private collections, to showcase the wide range of actions women in the 19th and early 20th centuries were able to take by combining needle and thread with the power of the pen.
At a time when women did not have the vote, property rights, or occupational opportunities, and were just beginning to have beyond-basic literacy skills, creating signature quilts was a chance at self-expression and self-sufficiency. Frequently made as charity fund-raisers, signature quilts gave women a measure of both political and economic independence, enabling them to fund their favorite social causes entirely on their own. Groups of women raised money for temperance, abolition, church renovations, the Red Cross, and women’s social clubs by raffling off signature quilts. Many women’s groups also signed the quilts they made for troops during the Civil War, often adding patriotic verses to their signatures.
While making signature quilts for political or social causes was a major means of women’s self-expression, many more personal signature quilts were made. These quilts, too, provided a means for women to assert a more active role within their families and communities. The giving of a signature quilt placed women front and center at major family or local events, such as marriages, births, the departure of an important town resident, or the commemoration of a civic event. The more personal quilts provided an even greater chance at expression, and many signers added favorite poems or Bible verses, as well as personal messages to recipients, making signature quilts a unique window into everyday American women’s values. With family quilts making up a large proportion of these works, they are also of significant interest to genealogists.
So important were signature quilts in 19th century American society that by the middle of the century, industry provided stamps to embellish signatures, patterns, sample verses, and calligraphy advice to the nation’s quilt makers. The tradition continues and is still honored today by contemporary quiltmakers.
Women’s Writes will run from May 13 through July 11. Support for this exhibition is provided in part by Mancuso Show Management.
Learn Victorian Inking with Faye Labanaris and Sign Your Quilts with Flair
1-Day Workshop, May 22, 10am – 1pm
With weddings and graduations in full swing, now is the time many quilters are making special quilts as gifts. Label your quilt with a unique heirloom label, featuring the same vintage hand-inking seen on many of the quilts in Women’s Writes! Sign your quilts with confidence and flair! Learn foolproof calligraphy with very little effort, skill, or pain. Create several original design labels for your quilts right in class. Afraid of drawing on your quilt blocks? Learn to use fabric pens with skill and confidence. Create delightful detail on your Baltimore-style blocks. This is a fun class and you’ll discover talents you never knew you had!
Cost: $55 members/$60 non-members; includes all materials. To register, contact the shop at 978-452-4207, ext. 16, or shop@nequiltmuseum.org
Save the Date: Lowell Quilt Festival
This Year’s Dates: August 12 – 14
This year’s Lowell Quilt Festival offers more excitement than ever before. IMAGES, the centerpiece of the Festival, has been moved to a new location, Lowell Memorial Auditorium, and offers so much to see and do, including:
* Award-winning quilts at IMAGES 2010
* Special Exhibits
* Special Events
* Live Auction of quilts with wine/cheese preview
* Exciting raffles
* Daily “Lunch & Learn” speakers with truck shows (limited space — advance registration recommended)
* Vendor demonstrations
* Top – notch vendor mall for all things fabric and sewing-related
* All proceeds from IMAGES 2010 benefit the New England Quilt Museum
Museums and galleries around town are partnered with the New England Quilt Museum to offer additional exhibits featuring the very best in textile arts. From historic Lowell’s cotton mills to the latest work from contemporary fiber artists, there’s something on view for every interest.
To help visitors see all there is to see, the Festival will offer a FREE HOP-ON/HOP-OFF SHUTTLE connecting parking areas to all participating Festival sites, funded by the City of Lowell.
Visit the Festival website, www.lowellquiltfestival.org for the latest news. Then, come to Lowell this August. You’ll be glad you did!
Book Group, Volunteer Thursdays & NEQM in the Community
Every Thursday, Outreach Program Manager Rhonda Galpern and volunteers meet to work on a variety of quilting projects: they assemble raffle quilts to benefit the museum, organize student projects or finish the quilts begun in local schools, as well as teach small groups the FUNdamentals of quilting. Visitors learn about quiltmaking and the museum’s connections with Lowell schools and community organizations.
Join us for these fun and educational programs!
Community Quilting: May 6, 13, 20, 27, 10am-3pm
Brown Bag Lecture: May 5, 12:30 – 1:30pm: Think Orange: “Quilts for a Cure” Melanoma/Skin Cancer Awareness Month
Book Group: May 20, 12:30 – 1:30pm: The Bishop’s Daughter by Wanda E. Brunstetter
Franciscan Guest House–Book Your Next Quilt Workshop
The Franciscan Guest House at Kennebunk Beach, Maine offers the ideal location for your guild’s next workshop. Spacious workrooms, with large tables and plenty of light, great scenic views, and a convenient location make the Guest House perfect for weekend or week-long workshops. Reasonable rates, delicious food, and just 90 minutes north of Boston. A short walk to the beach and shops of Kennebunkport. For more information, visit the guesthouse website at www.franciscanguesthouse.com/quilt_retreats.html or call 207-967-4865.
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Chelmsford Quilter’s Guild
“A Quilt Show to be Remembered”
May 14-15, 2010
Friday 12 noon – 8pm, Saturday 9am – 4pm
Over 100 quilts on display ~ Food court ~ Raffles ~ Boutique ~Silent Auction
Admission $5.00
Church of St John the Evangelist
115 Middlesex Street
North Chelmsford, MA
Visit http://www.chelmsfordquiltguild.com/show.shtml for more information and quilt show submission form.
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Take our Survey and Get 20% Off in the Museum Shop
Please take our survey and help us to bring you more of your favorite exhibitions, programs, shop merchandise, and classes! Tell us anything — what you like, what you don’t like, how we can make this Museum even better…Your responses are completely anonymous, and will help us to tailor our programs to patron interests. As a token of our appreciation, we will give you 20% off any non-consignment item in the museum shop. Click here to take the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JM89YMM
Call for Entries:
From Fine Art to Fiber: Reinterpreting the Masters
Deadline: May 15
The Whistler House Museum of Art hopes you will consider an entry to their juried art quilt exhibit this summer (in conjunction with the Lowell Quilt Festival). Send an email to jdyment@whistlerhouse.org to receive a prospectus. Entries are due by May 15th.
This year’s theme is “From Fine Art to Fiber: Reinterpreting the Masters.”
The exhibit will consist of quilts inspired by famous works of art including
paintings, murals, and sculpture — from Michelangelo to Warhol and beyond.
Whistler House Museum of Art
243 Worthen Street
Lowell, MA 01852
978-452-7641
Wednesday through Saturday 11am to 4pm
www.whistlerhouse.org
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N. Billerica, MA 01862, Phone: 978-667-6300, www.uniqueboutiqueboston.com, info@uniqueboutiqueboston.com
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Amoskeag Quilters’ Guild Biennial Quilt Show/Quilt Auction
May 15 – 16
“Coming Home” features a wide array of quilts created by Guild members, including a queen size, patriotic raffle quilt. All raffle quilt proceeds will go to Liberty House, an agency that provides temporary assistance to homeless veterans. Other features of the show include vendors, door prizes, demonstrations, raffle bags, and refreshments. Parking is plentiful, and the venue is handicap accessible.
Show: Sat. and Sun., May 15-16, 2010
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Auction: Sun., May 16, 2010
1 p.m. (preview during show hours until 12:30 p.m. on Sun.)
Multi-day admission for the show/auction: $6.
Manchester Memorial High School, 1 Crusader Way, Manchester, NH 03103
Web site link: www.amoskeagqg.org
Amoskeag Quilters’ Guild, P.O. Box 4116, Manchester, NH 03108-4116
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Penny Power Campaign Update
The results are in from our first Penny Power campaign. It’s amazing how small change can add up! We emptied one of our two embellished piggies, and there was more than $92 in change in that one little piggy bank! Please continue to help fuel the Museum with Penny Power by disposing of your loose change.
Last summer, the New England Quilt Museum received a Cultural Facilities Matching Grant from Mass Cultural Council and MassDevelopment for $77,000, to be used to address deferred maintenance issues in our historic 1845 building.
Having raised more than $40,000 from the current and past Board of Directors, we are campaigning to raise the remaining $35,000. One of the first projects we are undertaking with our matching grant funds is the upgrade we desperately need for our HVAC system — that’s why we’re turning to you to help fuel the Museum with Penny Power.
When you visit NEQM, look for Penny and Patches Pig, two lovely, embellished piggy banks, one on the front desk and one in the library. We are asking you and all our visitors to consider disposing of your pennies by feeding the pigs, helping us fuel the museum with Penny Power. We are also inviting Guilds to consider passing around a Penny Jar for the Museum at monthly meetings, as some of our supporting guilds already are doing.
We are also asking every member to consider keeping a jar at home and emptying all your loose change into the jar at the end of the day. Find a spare penny in a pocket or on the sidewalk? Put it in your jar and then bring your jar into the museum to be emptied and tallied in with what we hope will be thousands of other pennies.
Tell Your Online Friends You Like the New England Quilt Museum
Are you on the social network Facebook? Tell your online friends and family how much you enjoy the New England Quilt Museum by “Liking” the Museum’s Fan Page today. Connecting with us online not only lets you tell the world about your interest in the Museum by posting it to your profile, but also gives you access to candid event photos, special museum shop sneak-peaks, and an easy, one-click way to make plans with friends to attend our next events together. Just visit our Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lowell-MA/The-New-England-Quilt-Museum/101991031637 and tell your friends you like NEQM!
Annual NEQM Members’ Meeting
May 26, 5pm
All members of NEQM are invited to the Museum’s annual member meeting on May 26. Come meet your fellow members, enjoy light refreshments, and hear a special program from the National Park Service! Not a member? Join today! Memberships cost as little as $30 a year, and help support the New England Quilt Museum and all its programs. For membership information and to join online, visit http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/support-us/index.html
The New England Quilt Museum
18 Shattuck Street
Lowell, MA 01852
