The Last Of The Cheddar Exhibit

This post is the final installment of my three part review of The New England Quilt Museum's            current exhibition of turn of the 20th century Pennsylvania quilts that featured "cheddar." The museum is located in Lowell, Massachusetts, (link is here).

Almost all of the quilts featured were very large bed quilts, but there was one small quilt in the tumbling blocks pattern.

The colors on this are not true, but at least you have an image of the quilt.

Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge it.

In the above photograph, there are two pieces of a large-scale floral that had a very soft dusty blue background. I've seen modern manufacturers call this aqua, maybe Moda? Not sure of that, please do let me know if you can enlighten me.

The cheddar diamond is right beside the little cheater corner triangles that allow the design to become rectangular. And check out that beautiful hand quilting in the borders, too!

The greens in this were solid and very dark!

Next is an unusual Double Irish Chain. Who would've thought to use cheddar in this way?

I hope you can make out the fancy wreaths of quilting inside the cheddar alternate blocks!

Next is a Log Cabin that was machine pieced! Remember, the first Singer Featherweights were made in 1851, and there were other brands, too, so sewing machines were available if you could afford one.

Check out the slanted border! Cool, huh?

Here is a close up to see some of the fabrics.

The chimneys were all done in a white ticking with a fine blue stripe, and in the quilt, they are turned every which way.


Lastly I want to show you the best "story behind the quilt", which was represented by a humble-looking Rail Fence.

As this legend relates, nice women did not speak out on political subjects.

But this quilt has one single piece of cheddar, smack dab in the middle of the quilt, and it looks like it is glowing, it is so bright! It has a bright red plaid on either side of it.

It stood for the "Gold Standard", a platform of the 1896 Presidential candidate William McKinley! This gal was a political activist in her day in her own way!

Before I close, I want to share one more quilt from the New England Quilt Museum's permanent collection because it was so beautiful.

Again, I apologize for the dim lighting that makes all indigos look black to the camera. 

The reds were very subdued, as was the creamy tan. Notice the cut-away shape for a four poster bed.

And I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my very dear friend, Grace, who did all the driving and  planning for this wonderful trip.

Grace and I both enjoyed the gift shop, filled with quilty delights!

If you have a chance to visit this museum, I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did!



Raven said that it is her turn to be on my blog and NOT those annoying kitties!

Stay calm and quilt on!

A Slice Of Cheddar Part II

I did go to my beloved Sunshine Girls group at the Alton Senior Center today and had a fine time! My 16 log cabin blocks got another strip added to each one and I feasted afterwards on "French Toast Casserole". It was delicious!
They took big hunks of cut-up raisin bread and poured an egg mixture over the bread, let it soak up for about twenty minutes and then baked it in the oven. It was served with butter and maple syrup and it was sooo good! It really is the only practical way to serve French toast to a crowd of fifty hungry, hungry hippos. But I forgot the camera.

So, as I promised you, we are back to the 1880's and 1900's Pennsylvannia cheddar quilts, yeay!

This basket quilt was cheddar, indigo and a bit of solid tan or buff inside the baskets, and it was quite large.

I can just imagine the maker of this quilt humming, "A Tisket, A Tasket" as she quilted or sewed.

The stitches were so fine and even! Next was a Joseph's Coat of Many Colors.

The quilting on this one was in long intertwined cables.

I was flabbergasted to realize that "String" or "Strippy" quilts have been with us for so very long. This one was dated for circa 1870!

When I looked closely, I saw several fabric designs that are being reproduced today for the historical aficionado. Click on any picture to enlarge it.

The cheddar stripe down the middle of each block really unifies all of them, just as I have done with my modern string quilts with a focus fabric. Nothing new under the sun, eh?
Next was a 25-Patch blocked quilt.

It was magnificent!

Those "sashing" rows were a bright red with cheddar and the wide border was a double-pink quilted with swags. I stared at this quilt for so long! I just couldn't take my eyes off of it, it was so beautiful.

The HST's were 1 1/4" square, gasp! This had to be my personal favorite of the show.

Next was one called, "Railroad Crossing" and it is alternately listed as "Old Italian Block."

Those alternate blocks in the above photo are a dark green small print, not black, but the cheddar background of the lattice only appeared in four of the blocks.
I especially wanted to include the next selection because it is someone's UFO, LOL!

It never did get quilted nor sandwiched. So it happened back then, too!

There were many many internal seams in this piece that showed how very precious each tiny scrap was to its maker! Here is a close up:

There are still more quilts from this show that I want to share with you tomorrow, but here is a shot of the little park where we took a shady break to eat our picnic lunch.
Felix had prepared a fresh lobster salad for us the night before and I had brought along some sweet potato chips made by UTZ. It was wonderful and very welcome to sit down, too!

Can you see the antique restored train of the Boston & Maine line?

And for those of you that crave those cute kitties, here they are, LOL!

Tipper loves to pose!

Stay calm and quilt on!

Slice of Cheddar Part I

Today was a very special day trip with my dear friend, Grace, from over in Maine, to go to The New England Quilt Museum to view their exhibit, "A Slice Of Cheddar". Here is the link to their  website. We drove to Lowell, Massachusetts, about 2 hours from my farm.

These were all quilts from before or at the turn of the 20th century and they were wonderful! The museum does allow photographs of the quilts on exhibit, as long as you do not use a flash. The exhibit is very dimly lit to conserve the colors of the quilts that are on display and there is zero natural sunlight. This made conditions very challenging to capture images, but I will try to present what moved me.
Please recall that you may click on any picture to enlarge it, especially the legends that I have placed first before the quilt being discussed.

Much of the cheddar looks pink on my monitor, but I must assure you it was classic yellowy-orange.

Here is a close up of one of those blocks.

So many of the quilts were anonymously made! It was a shame to have no name nor place nor year of manufacture.

This Carpenter's Star had a huge visual impact at  84" x 84".

This quilt used a lot of chromium yellow in the center and was bound with cheddar.

The wide borders were a double pink on the inner border, and a dark reddish brown on the outer border of the above quilt, while the dark cornerstones were deep green.

 The chimneys of this log cabin were a deep rose color, and those logs that look pink were actually cheddar!

There will be a second installment of pictures from the exhibit tomorrow and more tales to tell.

Okay, just one Kitty picture, too! LOL!

Tipper, on the left, is the son of Spooky, the mother cat, on the right.

Happy sewing!