Field Trip!

 

Yesterday, I had a very fun field trip with my buddies Janet and Pam.  (Another friend, Sandy, was supposed to join us but she was home with a bad cold.  Hope you're feeling better, Sandy! We missed you!)  We headed south to San Francisco to see the exhibit of Amish Quilts at the DeYoung Museum.  

And what a gorgeous exhibit it was.  (Is -- it will be there through June 6 in case you haven't seen it yet.)  Who doesn't love Amish quilts -- the bold colors, the graphic designs, the perfect meeting of simple design with complex quilting?  It is one thing to see gorgeous pictures of Amish quilts, but seeing them in person was a different experience.  The colors just glowed.  I couldn't help thinking of the unknown quilters whose hands had created those beautiful quilts.  Imagine what they'd think to know that their work was hanging in a museum as art! 

 This particular quilt was one of my favorites from the exhibit.  Funny, it doesn't look as gorgeous in photo form, but in person it had a stunning glow.  I'd never seen this quilt block or pattern before, and it seemed unusually complex for an old Amish quilt.

Of course the exhibit made us want to gather up solid fabrics and make one or two.  Or five.  I went through an Amish quilt making phase when I was first learning to quilt, before I understood the connection between bias triangles and getting a ripply mess of a quilt top at the end of the process.  Sigh.

If you can't get to San Francisco to see this exhibit, you might be interested to know that the museum store has a beautiful hardback book (90 color photos) available for online ordering and ON SALE for $19.95!  Bargain!

After a lovely lunch at the museum cafe, we headed to Union Square to visit Britex, the famed 4-story fabric store.  Pam and I had never been there, which Janet couldn't believe.  And it was extremely impressive, I must say.  It's a dress-making fabric sort of store, but the sheer quantity of fabrics was wonderful to see.  I was especially taken with the notions floor, which had every sort and color of trim you could ever want.

And the buttons!  Cases and cases of all colors of buttons!  I had this urge to pull out a box or two and just sit on the floor and run my hands through them. 

But we headed home without making a single purchase, overwhelmed by the selection as we were.  But we were happy nonetheless.   Having a quilt-filled day with good friends is a wonderful thing.