Grace Hudson Museum

August 13 to November 6, 2005

Sunhouse Guild Quilt

Sunhouse Guild Quilt

“Pieces of the Past: Quilting Traditions,” an exhibition of over forty regional quilts, drawn from both public and private collections, will be on display at the Grace Hudson Museum from August 13 to November 6, 2005. The quilts range in date from the early 1800s to 2002, highlighting examples of major quilting traditions and techniques while documenting the values, interests and experiences of their creators and the times in which they lived.

Embroidered Spool Quilt, Courtesy of
Healdsburg Museum.

Embroidered Spool Quilt, Courtesy of Healdsburg Museum.

Tumbling Blocks Quilt, Courtesy of Healdsburg Museum.

Tumbling Blocks Quilt, Courtesy of Healdsburg Museum.

Quilts on display are made from bright silks, tobacco felts, simple cotton shirting material, cigar ribbons, expensive dress fabric and wool suits. Besides being beautiful in their own right, these quilts have fascinating stories to tell. There is a double wedding ring quilt, made for the bride-to-be by her friends, and stored away, unused, when she ran away from the arranged marriage to follow her own heart. Another quilt won first prize at the California State Fair in 1954, a hand-painted masterpiece requiring hundreds of hours to complete, created by the wife of a logger living out in the wilds of Mendocino County. One quilt was made to help the temperance cause, while another was completed in Finland and carried to America by the maker’s sixteen year old daughter.

State Birds Quilt, courtesy of
Mendocino County Museum.

State Birds Quilt, courtesy of Mendocino County Museum.

The Sun House Guild quilt, finished in 1980, pictures a number of historic sites existing around Mendocino County during Grace Hudson’s lifetime. Designed by Virginia Fitch and containing the work of over 30 quilters, it helped to raise over $6,000 to pay for building the Grace Hudson Museum. There is a quilt made by three grandchildren for their grandmother, depicting life on their northern California farm in 1893; and another picturing the bombing of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Come and enjoy these, and all the other quilts on display, for yourselves.

Blazing Star Quilt,
Courtesy of Helen White.

Blazing Star Quilt, Courtesy of Helen White.

Princess Feather Wreath Quilt, Courtesy of Helen
White.

Princess Feather Wreath Quilt, Courtesy of Helen White.