Arizona Quilt Documentation Project – Tucson

By Sue Franklin

Sue began the session by thanking Kate for being photographer as Peggy is in New England with the Migrant Quilt Project.  She also mentioned meeting Dr. James Burns, new Arizona Historical Society Executive Director, in Mid-April at the Arizona History Museum.  Laraine invited her to come to help emphasize the importance of quilts in the Museum collection.  Sue also introduced the Arizona Quilt Documentation Project to Dr. Burns and noted that the Tucson team had documented all but a few of the Museum’s 100+ quilts.  She mentioned other quilts the team has documented, such as Quilt for a Cause, the Jewish History Museum, and others.  Sue later emailed Dr. Burns a description of the documentation project/process, the Quilt Index, and where it’s housed.

Linda shared her vast knowledge and collection of fabrics for the continuing education program.  Her topic, Fabrics over Time, was perfect!  She brought tubs of vintage fabric to support her lecture and distributed a handout, Fabric Over time.  Additionally, she had a vintage Bow Tie quilt hanging with pinned tags in varied places, indicating the fabric and its place in time.  Linda shared a book by Edie McGinnis, A Bag of Scraps. Quilts of the Garment District.

Linda captured everyone’s attention on this continuing ed; if she’s willing, it needs repeating sometime in the future.

 

On the documentation side, the group documented two quilts, first, Kate’s Dahlia Wreath, a lovely hand quilted piece she found in a yard sale last summer.   Four salmon dahlias with red centers were connected by green leaves while the fifth dahlia proudly took center stage.  Terry shared the next one, Mimbres Symbols, a quilt she made after attending a workshop in 2003. This lovely four block quilt was bordered in stunning turquoise and black.  Details of this program are available on the AZQS web site www.azquiltstudygroup.org/.

Anyone is welcome to visit our meetings!  We love guests.  For questions about either quilt documentation or joining the team, please either call or email Tucson liaisons Sue Franklin, (520.490.4721; suevette63@comcast.net) or Terry Gryzb-Wysocki, (520.749.9326; terry-gw@mindspring.com).  New team members are welcome. Monthly training sessions are held from 9:30 until 12:30 at the Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center on Ruthrauff Road.  The next meeting is Monday, June 11th. 

Information about quilt documentation teams throughout Arizona may be obtained from Lynn Miller at either 480.202-1230 or azquiltdoc@yahoo.com.  Lynn also needs people familiar with the computer to aid her with data entry for the Quilt Index.  Lynn does distance training which takes about two hours.