The Park Avenue Armory Adorned in Red & White

I read about it.  I saw photos of it.  I just didn't expect the rush of feelings I would have seeing it in person.  Walking into the main room of the Armory in NYC brought tears to my eyes.

The exhibit, "INFINITE VARIETY, Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts", included 650 red and white quilts hung in spirals from the ceiling of the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. It was breathtaking and amazing and inspirational. It was nothing like I had ever seen before and I don't think I will ever see anything like it again. Just magnificent!

It seemed like there were no 2 alike. 

 The ceiling must have been at least 40 feet high.

 The lighting was just unbelievable.  Every quilt, no matter how high it was, glowed. The dark walls and ceiling made the quilts seem like they were floating.

 It was impossible to pick individual quilts to photograph.  I was told that this one was embroidered four and sugar sacks that were bleached and then stitched.

 This was the back wall.

The program  describes the quilts as ordinary coverings, largely anonymous with unknown provenance.  I would have to strongly disagree with the first part of this statement.  These quilts were far from ordinary.  Maybe that would be a museum curator's point of view, but any quilter could tell you that's not true.  Each of these quilts has a story involving its creator and then an additional story from the collector, Mrs.  Rose, and were stunning in their simplicity of color.  It was so hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to ..... it would be the red and white one. 

 If you would like to see more photos head to:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/1587925@N24/ , you can also download a free app for your iPhone of all 650 quilts from the Apple itunes store  as Infinite Variety and check out Pat Sloan's blog for lots of links. 

We couldn't visit New York without eating and visiting The City Quilter.  Of course we had to see if they carried my book.  Guess what? One left.   My friend Angela bought  the last copy.  Sold out!   

The Wonders of Rick Rack

A little while ago, our quilt guild ran a bus trip to NYC. The plan was to go to the garment district and The Americna Folk Art Museum. We used Paula Nadelstern's website, http://www.paulanadelstern.com/, for our shopping plan. We pretty much stuck with her abbreviated 3 hour version and walked our feet off. With side trips to the folk art museum, The City Quilter (http://www.cityquilter.com/), lunch and Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes (http://www.magnoliacupcakes.com/), featured on Sex And The City, our day was packed.

Our favorite stop was Daytona Trims (http://www.daytonatrim.com/) on 39th St. Kelly Meanix, queen of rick rack turned us (Christine Kamon and me) on to this wonderful and fun trim. Daytona had yards and yards and yards of rick rack in teeny tiny widths to giant widths in every single color you could think of. You would tell the store employee which one and how much you wanted and they would measure it right off the spool, cut it and stuff it in a plastic bag and record the price on the outside of the bag. It was intoxicating - 5yds/$1, 3yds/$1, up to $2/yd. We bought an assortment of colrs and sizes. We were giddy with joy! (I know, we need a real life.) Between the 3 of us, we sepnt over $150 on this old - but new to us - embellishment.

Our brains were working a mile a minute. Where could we use our new discovery and did we buy enough? Oh there's always mail order, if we run out! The wonderful thing about this rick rack is that it's cotton. It's got a nice soft feel to it. And it's behavior is bias-like. It curves nicely. Check out the swirls you can make. I can't wait until I can find the time to try it with other circular/wavey applications I have used it in a quilt that I am working on. And guess what? I did run out. And I had to call Daytona Trims to send me more. This is a block of the quilt called "Bubblegum Kisses".

Christine had a ball using many of the colors she bought on a quilt she made. I have posted a cropped image so you can get a feeling for the variety of rick rack she used. The quilt is called "Buttons, Beads and Rick Rack". The rick rack really curves nicely around the circle.

You can buy packaged rick rack at JoAnn's. They do have it in a variety of sizes and colors, but it is polyester and is a little stufffer.