Billings Farm & Museum's 23rd Annual Quilt Exhibition
Billings Farm & Museum, gateway to Vermont's rural heritage, is hosting its 23rd Annual Quilt Exhibition from August 1 - September 27. The exhibit will feature more than 50 quilts made by today's quilters of Windsor County, plus quilting activities and demonstrations each day for all ages.
A variety of challenge quilts will also be exhibited by the Delectable Mountain Quilt Guild. A challenge requires certain design and construction rules agreed upon by the guild members to increase their quilting skills while they enjoy comparing results. There will be two quilting bees during the Quilt Exhibition: The Delectable Mountain Quilt Guild will hold it's quilting bee on Saturday, August 15th and The Heart of the Land Guild quilting bee on Saturday, September 12th.
Quilts have been a part of American rural life for over 300 years, colorful testimony to the fact that farm life, while sometimes austere, held celebration. The women who settled in Vermont during the late 18th century brought with them the hand skills, thrift, imagination, and traditional designs which would develop into a peculiarly American art form: the patchwork quilt.
Today's quilters in Vermont carry on a continuing and evolving tradition. Much of the contemporary work of Windsor County quilters is composed of patterns handed down from earlier generations and executed by hand; some adapt the traditional craft to more modern expressions and materials. All require skill, patience, and imagination.
Admission to Billings Farm & Museum's 23rd Annual Quilt Exhibition includes the working dairy farm, orientation and farm life exhibits, the restored and furnished 1890 Farm House, plus daily programs and activities.
