Winterthur

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While we were away in Virginia, we took a short trip up to Delaware to visit Winterthur, the home of Henry Dupont. I had heard about it before but never been there. INCREDIBLE!!! Henry Dupont devoted his life to collecting American decorative arts. Always envisioning his house as a museum of decorative arts for the public, he fully furnished 195 rooms with hundreds of thousands of American antiques, before their value was fully realized by the public as a whole. For instance, he saved a southern plantation home that was slated for demolition. Not only did he restore all the woodwork to use on walls, doorways, and mantels, he used the facade to line a wall of what was once his badminten court, creating an indoor street of sorts. Then he installed the spiral staircase in his main foyer as a surprise for his family while they were on vacation. Can you even imagine being inspired by a new spiral staircase? (We were surprised by our lack of air conditioning upon returning home from a trip, but not a spiral staircase!)

Overall I was struck by the fearlessness of the 18th century artists in terms of color and scale. While the they were heavily influenced by both French and English styles, there is a joyousness and levity in their designs that was distinctly American… much like exuberance of the quilts one sees today.

And I didn’t even mention the gardens, which Dupont valued as highly as the antiques. Dupont was a pioneer in natural landscaping that is popular today. There are hundreds of acres of gardens, including everything from bucolic meadows…


… to formal gardens. Here are my mom and I, with the house in the background, taken by her friend Marilyn.


A beautiful day!

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Floral Fling Patterns and the North Carolina Quilt Symposium

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This past weekend I ran through the North Carolina Quilt Symposium. “Ran” is a pretty accurate description of what happened because I was in the middle of shuttling children to almost continuous ballet rehearsals. I was so pleased to find two of my favorite vendors sharing a room: Quilter’s Gallery and Overall Quilter. Quilter’s Gallery used to have a lovely bricks and mortar store in the heart of Charlotte and now has some great kits and classes online. Overall Quilter is launching an exciting new online venture. Aimee, the owner, was debuting a lovely line of new batik applique wall quilts called “Floral Fling” . BEAUTIFUL!!! Go take a look.

I also met a great new mother/daughter team, Elizabeth and Jenna of Grand Bazaar Fabrics. They had a lovely display of colorful prints and kits. You must check them out…

We are on the road this week, so this is a picture-less post. Lots of new patterns in development. Have a beautiful start to your summer!

Amanda

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