Inside the Church of the Land, 10/04/09
Another round of Fall Quilt Shows
You might recall, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, that last October was the first Des Moines American Quilter’s Society show (the first of at least SIX, I’m pleased to say!) and along with it were several area quilt shows. I blogged about them here, and here, here, and here…it was a Des Moines Virtual Festival of Quilts. This last weekend was the first of the 2009 round of shows…
My sweetie and I went to Living History Farms to see their annual quilt show, which is held in the Church of the Land. The Church was built in 1980 on the spot where Pope John Paul II said Mass on October 4, 1979. We were there on the 30th anniversary of that historic visit.
See that quilted banner behind the Pope’s altar in this photo?
It was there on Sunday, in all it’s glory. My mother went to see the Pope that day, along with 300,000+ other people, I went with my Dad and my four siblings to visit my grandparents that day. To see the Four Seasons quilt in person was very powerful for me, raised a Catholic in the Midwest we knew how historic and important that cold October day was to our State, and to our Church. I actually got choked up when I first walked up in front of the quilt…
The design is recreated in stained glass inside the Church…
Beautiful.
See that quilted banner behind the Pope’s altar in this photo?
It was there on Sunday, in all it’s glory. My mother went to see the Pope that day, along with 300,000+ other people, I went with my Dad and my four siblings to visit my grandparents that day. To see the Four Seasons quilt in person was very powerful for me, raised a Catholic in the Midwest we knew how historic and important that cold October day was to our State, and to our Church. I actually got choked up when I first walked up in front of the quilt…
The design is recreated in stained glass inside the Church…
Beautiful.
verrrry Tiny hand quilted stitches…
The quilt show is hung inside the church, and each year shows different quilts from the permanent museum collection of Living History Farms. I’m always amazed at the tedious craftsmanship these vintage pieces show…
And the fact that they know something about the makers of many of them, because they were donated by families to the museum. I’d like to think one day, my best work, will be hung for people to enjoy long after I am gone.
They had a small collection of Hmong quilts on display, something new to me, they are very detailed story quilts about events of every day life. This one showed scenes of tasks as mundane as feeding the hens and planting seeds, all the way up to playing football (soccer) at the end of the quilt…
This was my fave…a sunflower star quilt, I’ve always loved this block and would like to make one for myself one day…
Seriously. Stunning.
The colors in this quilt from the 1870s were amazingly planned and pieced to make a lovely composition. The stars are all hand pieced, the setting squares are all solid (set-in, not pieced) also by hand, and the borders were added by machine. It was however, hand quilted.
Loved the homespuns and plaids in this quilt…it even had an early example of a novelty print, a riding crop and gloves in white on an indigo background.
And this pink and brown quilt also made me want to go home and create one of my own…
I didn’t, since there is just a project or two ahead of that one… ;->
made by a brunnette 
Wow, what an amazing experience for you! Very cool to see all those quilts in such a neat setting. I can't believe all the piecing that went into that sunflower quilt and the star quilt, my favorites too. If only we had more time… (sigh)
beautiful quilts
wow
wish I could have seen a few of these up close!
the quilting is amazing …
thank you so much for sharing these pictures with us
nothing like seeing antique quilts in mho!
Kathie
WOW. Love them all!!!
Gorgeous, gorgeous antique quilts! What a wonderful show!
Thank you for showing thse quilts, it's wonderful to see them all. I love the setting for the show, similsr to one I went to this year.
Wow! That pink and brown one is glorious. Thanks for sharing, Ann.
I assume you will be going to the AQS show in DM at the end of the month then? I wish I could, but a couple of friends are coming, I think. Thanks for sharing the quilt show. I didn't realize that they had one there every year.
Love, love, love Living History Farms! I had so much fun working in the Millinery this summer, just “down the walk” from the church. We'd always peek out the window to watch the modern weddings going on in the Church of the Land. I need to make it down there for quilt shows like this… what fun!
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