MOSTLY VINTAGE QUILTS @ VALLE CRUCIS (Cheri)

If you've been reading our blog for a while, you know that I like to quilt in the North Carolina mountains in late September.

One of the guilds that I belong to holds an annual retreat near Valle Crucis ("Valley of the Crosses"), North Carolina.

The Valle Crucis Conference Center is run by the Episcopal Church; you can see a small saint at the bottom of the picture above.​

​These are just a few of the beautiful greenery and floral arrangements that I saw growing on the grounds this week.

I've posted about the retreat space and our activities before (here, here, and here), but wanted to focus on the Center's collection of vintage quilts this year.

First, however, a couple more pieces of the gilded religious artwork hanging in the lodge where we slept.  You may need to expand your browser to read the texts.

This ecclesiastical piece hangs in the lounge on the ground floor of the lodge:

This year I arrived a little earlier than some years, and the Conference Center has opened more rooms for visitors, so I was able to see a lot more of the quilts on beds.  This was probably my favorite, due to the unusual layout of the stars:

These two are close runners-up, because of their energy and the makers' refusal to stick to convention in their combinations of fabric and block layout:

(When you see a quilt like the one above, you just can't stop asking yourself how much of the artist's decisions were made by choice, and how many by necessity . . . wouldn't it be fun to know!)

Finally, I messed up the photography of this one, so there is no way of looking at it without feeling more than a little dizzy, but it's unusual and refreshing to see the pastels combined with black and white:

I almost finished two small quilts this year, which I will likely include in a post here after binding them.

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