135+ YEARS OF LOG CABINS: OVER 250,000 PIECES! (Cheri)

The Virginia Quilt Museum has relocated to a former barn in the Silver Lake Historic District, near Harrisonburg, Virginia.

We headed up this week to see a couple of their exhibits, before traveling on the Chesapeake Bay area for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival.

This quilt, made in about 1890, is made entirely of silk fabrics:

A couple of women who were viewing the quilt after I did were musing about how the maker could have acquired so much silk:  a seamstress?  her husband was a salesman, and she got his sample cards?

Up a single flight of stairs was a library-style room, with a display about how to determine how old a fabric is:

You can see this painting on a window looking from this room to an interior room:

I wish there had been information about the painting available!

The exhibit I was most interested was the extraordinary miniature work of Amy Pabst.  She creates very small quilts with strips that finish to only a few hair-widths wide.

Pabst did not consider her series of quilts complete until she had used over 250,000 pieces.  This exhibit includes 27 of her pieces.  She will also have an exhibit of her work at the British Festival of Quilts later this year.

I've listed the piece titles, sizes, and numbers of pieces immediately below the pictures.

Number Six Piece; 15" x 13.5"; 5,400 pieces; inspired by a late 1800's quilt

If you aren't a seasoned quilter, you won't know that every block in this quilt is made with the same set of strips.  The difference is simply the placement of colors.

Tyger, Tyger;  11.5" x 11.5"; 6,413 pieces

What you are looking at here is about 4.5" wide:

Detail of above

This quilt was made with silks manufactured for making men's ties:

Sharp  Dressed Man; 13" x 13"; 5,700 pieces

Detail of above

This is, I believe, a micro-reproduction of an antique quilt in the Pilgrim and Roy collection, using antique silks.  (See Figure 3 at this site.)

Pilgrim and Roy; 14.5" x 17"; 6,584 pieces

This unique design was achieved entirely with velvet:

Pure Velvet; 32" x 32"; 21,609 pieces

You might be able to find out more about Pabst's work in her book Log Cabin:  The 100,000 Pieces Project if you can find a copy of it, as it is now out of print.  (I lucked into a copy a year or two ago, not even realizing what I was picking up.)

I really liked this historical reference that was submitted for a stars quilt challenge:

Three old toy machines in the Museum's display:

I didn't head up to the third floor; I didn't even ask.

Finally, probably nobody will be as intrigued as I was at this ingenious approach to the need for a step in a too-small area: