Textiles and the Triplett Sisters

Our first adventure in October was a trip to Lincoln, Nebraska for the American Quilt Study Group Seminar. While attending the seminar we visited the International Quilt Museum (now IQM< formerly the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.) Shapeshifters was a new exhibition which showcased acquisitions that had never been exhibited at the museum before. This first in a series of exhibitions focused on applique and the center medallion format is heavily represented. Each quilt uses a different approach to make the design original in the quilt artists own way. The quilts in this exhibition range in date from 1830’s – 1930’s. The gazelle quilt was made by Bertha Stenge, dubbed “Chicago’s Quilting Queen” by the Chicago Daily News. The quilt was originally purchased from the Chicago Art Institute, then later it was donated to IQM....

The history of Dutch Costume includes chintz. The costumes of the Netherlands vary by region, but the folk costumes have an explosion of colors and designs. Did I also mention that it includes wearing chintz? Bright beautiful bold prints, perfect for interior décor or quilts or clothes. Chintz that can’t be missed and should never be forgotten. The costume museum also preserved the stories told through the costumes worn. For example, the fisherman sweaters in which each village knitted a pattern common to the town. Then, when a man went overboard and washed up on shore, they knew in which village the man had resided. In Spakenburg, each woman makes her own the handmade bonnet, creating a self-invented pattern. The crocheting of these bonnets is very labor intensive requiring about a hundred hours to create a...

Prior to the Van Loon family settling in Amsterdam, the family (one of the founders of the VOC known in the US as Dutch East India Company) traces their origins to a small village in the Netherlands. In the middle of the 17c part of the family moved to Amsterdam where the family would become “regents of the city.” The canal house turned into a museum was bought by the family in 1884 and it is still owned by the family. For those quilters who enjoy Dutch Heritage fabrics or glories of Chintz in quilts, you will certainly understand the fascination of our visit to the family house turned museum. The family had access and dare I say the pick of the crop of the fabrics they imported to the Netherlands and the house remains decorated...

In Amsterdam there is a charming, more than four century old canal house (yes, over 400 years old) where the original architect of quilts lives with her artist husband. Up three flights of narrow stairs, (it was tempting to count the steps, but instead I focused on simply making it to the attic workshop without falling), a quilt artist extraordinaire works in her lair creating 3-d quilts. In the early 1970’s, Lucie Huig-Dunnebier began quilting creating three dimensional quilts. Since then she has explored various dimensional elements: raised graphics, pockets to hold treasures, windows with shutters to hide lovers, and more, pushing the dimensional boundaries of a quilt. Some of her crib quilts hung one way reveal the day colors with the sun. The same quilt hung upside down reveals the moon and the stars in...

Because I was teaching in the Netherlands, The Triplett Sisters recently had some wonderful adventures in Amsterdam. One of our first stops was a curious museum which honored all types of bags. According to Susan B. Anthony, “Every woman should have a purse of her own.” The Museum of Bags and Purses acknowledged that men should also have bags, since the oldest item in the collection was a man’s bag with secret pockets. It was wonderful to see the wide variety of handbags, but frequently we fail to recognize the needlework skill involved in many of these purses. Today’s blog will focus on “thigh pockets” purses hidden under the fabric of the dress. A slit in the dress allowed the wearer access to the items in the pockets. These pockets were from the 17th century to...