I went on a road trip last week with a couple of friends. We headed about an hour south to Lowell, MA, to check out the New England Quilt Museum. What a humbling and creative experience to see the works of these talented fabric artists.
They have a wide range of quilts on exhibit from across the Country including traditional quilts, amazing embroidery work and fabric art.
I am always amazed by the quilters and their marvelous works, but I have never seen this type of machine embroidery work.
If you are ever in the Lowell area, it is well worth the stop. They change the exhibits out so even if you have been before you probably won’t see the same quilts.
Lowell is a very eclectic town and from the quilt museum we walked the cobble stone streets to the Boott Cotton Mills which I’ll tell you about on Thursday.
I always wish you a good week, but after watching the news from Las Vegas, I also wish you a safe week.
I’m not sure safety is something we can take for granted anymore because I don’t think we understand this sea of violence. Prayers to all those families affected by this tragedy here in the US, and prayers to those who are trying to figure out why and if future tragedies like this can be prevented.
There are so many suffering from natural and man-made disasters across our global community that this Monday it feels like a heavy weight on my chest. Be safe, be happy, and enjoy each and every day.
NewEnglandGardenAndThread 
Beautiful work. I wish I had known of this museum when we visited New England a few years ago. I wish you a good week and a safe week too. What awful news we keep hearing around the world. All the very best to you and yours. 🙂
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Wishing you a good and safe week, too. Just when we think nothing else horrible could possibly happen, news of another unbelievable tragedy comes along. The weight on my chest just gets heavier.
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You are so right. We think we’ve seen ugly until it comes at us again and it’s worse.
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Your quilt museum review is a welcome respite from the harsh reality of the world today. All we can do is just keep moving forward, praying for victims as we go. I began a response to the recent flurry of bad news by donating to hurricane relief in Texas. Since then, so many other worthy causes have arisen that I can’t keep up. Posts like yours, focusing on the fruits of peaceful people, are appreciated.
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Thanks for sharing this, Judy. This might be just what I need to talk my wife into a day-trip to Lowell. I spent six months, driving to Lowell every Mon-Wed-Fri for a consulting job in the 80s. They were repairing the mill and the canal at that time, and I have always wanted to visit, since I never had a chance to enjoy the area back then.
I echo your thoughts and prayers. News like this is becoming all too common. I hope we can find a way to move beyond violence.
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I don’t believe I’ve ever done anything except drive near Lowell. I was impressed. The Quilt Museum is wonderful if you appreciate fabric art. But, the mills make your heart and mind accelerate. We took the tour and rode the trolley. I have to tell you in all honesty I will never look at a mill or a piece of fabric again in the same way. With your craftsmanship background, you would love the machinery and how it worked. I’d highly recommend it.
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Even if I can’t talk the Mrs. into going along, I will get back up there at some point. I was impressed with what they were trying to do, over 30 years ago.
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The mill story is all about young women coming in from the farm. Faith might appreciate her job and life more after hearing about it. Just looking around, it seems like there are a lot of possibilities for good food and drink. 🙂
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Beautiful quilts, terrible violence. I find it impossible (thankfully) to imagine the hate or despair that would lead someone to do something like this. Getting back at someone who injured you, killed a loved one, etc. is at least in some way understandable, but this random killing isn’t. Prayers from our house, too, that’s for sure.
janet
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Yes, random killing absolutely hurts your head and heart trying to absorb the tragedy of it all. Brings you right back to prayers.
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Over the Labor Day weekend, my wife and I drove to Paducah, so she could visit the quilt museum there. I visited the railroad and steamboat museum while she viewed the quilts. A good time was had by all.
As for the news of the day, it makes you want to hold your loved ones close.
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That does sound like a good day. Yes, a good day for hugs. 🙂
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Sigh. I know just what you mean. In this country, gun violence is a fact of life. I don’t have the answer, that’s for sure. Wish I did.
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After seeing the horrible news coming from Las Vegas on TV this morning, your post was a pleasant and welcome relief to the violence that’s happening in our country all too often. I just don’t understand what makes these people tick…or where all this hate comes from.
Heartfelt prayers to all the victims and their families.
Sounds like the quilt museum is quite an experience. Thanks for sharing your photos. Those quilts are amazing.
Wishing you and yours a safe week. Heck, a safe life!
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I hadn’t yet seen the news, so when I read your “Las Vegas” reference above, I’d thought you were referring to OJ’s release. Dear God, Judy. It’s so frustrating. I’m glad there are quilters amongst us, quilts to appreciate, homely arts to help still the wild thrashings of helplessness within. ❤
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Beautiful photos, Judy. The peaceful quilting pictures remind us that there is more good in this world than evil. Even with the dreadful news of violence which keeps assailing us, it would seem almost nonstop, we have to believe this.
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Lowell, MA is now firmly on my list of stopping places. Thanks for the tip! The “radiance” quilt is breathtaking!!
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It does feel like we are living from one calamity to the next. It’s hard to understand how we have transformed into this strange world. I find so much of it baffling … and the rest of it, simply terrifying.
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Those quilts are truely works of art.. I always think of the time, skill and patience that goes into making one. It is a reminder of the creativity and goodness in the world at times like this..words fail me otherwise..
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The quilts are gorgeous. My favorite is that flower one in blue and white with bits of pink.
Amen to what you said about Las Vegas. It’s just awful. My thoughts and prayers are with them too.
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Beautiful quilts.
This tragic day, coming on the heel of other tragic days, is more than I can handle right now. It’s time for “thoughts and prayers” to change to action.
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If only that could happen the world would be a better place. But for that, I think we need cooperation and determination which we seem to be in short supply of these days. But, we can hope that one of these days enough will be enough even for the lawmakers.
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I think this was a special trip which wraps us in warm, cozy and safe comfort, Judy. Thank you for including prayers and concerns. 🕊
Quilts will always remind me of my Grandma and how she would cut quilt squares and lay them out, telling about different designs. My Mom liked to sew clothes but also enjoyed yard and barn sales.
She would choose once every few years to take an old quilt off a bed, wash it in Woolite and then hang it on the clothesline. Once fully dry, she would put it in one of two cedar chests to “save.” Then, with an excited energy we would be off on a Saturday morning to look for a “new” old quilt to put on the chosen bed. We also would buy classic, dressy clothes, fun to have for parties or dances. She and Dad chaperoned at her high school she taught at.
My brothers liked occasionally coming to look for trains, mortar and pestles, picture frames and records. 🙂
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What great memories you have. I’m pretty sure I would have liked your Grandma. 🙂
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She would have been like an elderly aunt and made you feel right at home, Judy. 🙂
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Lovely quilts and sure the museum is interesting Judy. I liked these two puppies, is this quilt or embroidery?
Yesterday I watched on TV Euronews the tragedy in Las Vegas. Violence is more often passed in the life, it’s said the killer was psychopath one.
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The puppies were machine embroidery. How – I do not know. 🙂 I had an embroidery machine, and I guarantee you my machine and its operator could have never created anything remotely like that. 🙂 Yesterday’s tragedy is something the US is not going to forget. So many families lost loved ones, and there still appears to be no answers. Stay safe.
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All the comments above speak for me. Thanks for the quilts — they are comforting in their beauty and in their homeyness. God knows we need both in the midst of this brutality. I wonder if we will ever feel safe.
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Oh Judy. I would love to visit that quilt museum one day.
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Wonderful quilts! So glad you were able to go, and be inspired by the artists who created them. There is beauty all a round us, and as many have said, so much more good than bad. Praying for Las Vegas and our country that is so divided. Praying for those in harms way because of terrible weather and who are now trying to recover their homes and lives.
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I would LOVE to see such a display! I would swoon, no doubt. I love the one that has a bit of a snowflake look, likely a take on compass pattern, but the detail! Oh, that’s a beauty!
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Thanks for highlighting this museum, it might be worth a day trip with a friend of mine who quilts. Her birthday is coming up, so it might be a good occasion.
Counting my blessings! ❤
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I keep hearing about this museum–a wander through a set of beautiful handmade quilts would feel good right about now, with our world in such turmoil.
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Exactly. Looking at the work of all those artists, past and current, is just what a person needs. 🙂
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The Quilt Museum sounds just lovely, Judy! What a place of comfort and peace during these troubled times. I’m sure that you found great inspiration stitched, with hand and heart, into those New England threads! Sending warmest hugs! ♡
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Hey – so glad I had a chance to spend some time on this post because I thought from the title that perhaps the quilt sections were maybe a prayer thing or something. So I read the articles for them – and then saw the prayer part was for Las Vegas and ugh – that was horrid! And still praying for all healing and grieving
Oh and reading about the quilts was so cool ! The lady who numbered the women in her family and then the – omg – the ornate masterful skill of are lady who took 50 year to hone skills and then make that beauty in 6 to 8 months – seriously – one of the most beautiful works of fabric art I have seen
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