Quilt Stories from the Museum of Texas Tech University
Quilt Stories from the Museum of Texas Tech University
Dr. Marian Ann J. Montgomery, Ph.D., Curator of Clothing and Textiles at the Museum of Texas Tech University shares images of vintage quilts from their collection and tells their fascinating stories.
Organized Feed Sack Quilt
At this warm time of year, a sweet quilt made from feed sack fabrics seems a good piece to consider. This circa 1940s quilt was made in LaGrange, Texas, a small town between Houston and Austin, known in quilting circles as the home of the Texas Quilt Museum.
Pie Town, New Mexico Quilt
Pie Town is a small town in western New Mexico that was on the road taken by many who were escaping the Dust Bowl on their way to California during the Depression. Pie Town and its people were photographed in 1940 by Russell Lee, a photographer for the Farm Security Administration of the United States Government during the Great Depression.
Plainview, Texas Signature Quilt
A donation to the Museum of Texas Tech University of a Butterfly signature quilt from Plainview, Texas came as a result of a quilt documentation day. Due to the COVID-19 virus (2020), graduate students needed work to do from home. They used information collected from Quilt Documentation days in 2016 and prepared it to be uploaded onto The Quilt Index a valuable and searchable index on the internet.
Puff Quilts
Recently my husband came home telling me about a woman whose mother made lots of quilts and stuffed them with pantyhose. I can hear the hand and machine quilters in the group groaning now! After thinking about it for a while I remembered that there was a time during the early years of the quilt revival when puff quilts were popular and often stuffed with clean, used pantyhose.
Quilt Stories from the Museum of Texas Tech University
Life often brings small seemingly unimportant serendipitous moments that lead to big ideas. A chance encounter at an October DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting, where Dr. Marian Ann J. Montgomery, Ph.D. (Curator of Clothing and Textiles at the Museum of Texas Tech University) was invited to speak on quilts, led to a short chat post-meeting, followed by a more in-depth conversation over coffee during the Houston Quilt Festival last fall.
Quilting Taught at University in 1930s
Quilts and graduations have always gone hand in hand. Many a quilter has stayed up late burning the midnight oil while adding the final touches to a graduate's special quilt. Dr. Marian Ann Montgomery delights us with another aspect of college study from an earlier time.
Quilts Among the Dinosaurs
Quilts and the New Year
Many women made quilts as a necessity, not for beauty—just to keep their family warm. The three quilts I show you here from the Museum’s Collection were made probably by women who just needed to get them done to warm their children. However looking at the quilts today through the prism of modern art, we can see that even with scraps these women created beautiful works of art.
Red and Green Mid 19th Century Texas Quilt
Red, White, and Blue Quilts
The colors of red, white and blue dominate everyone's summertime festivities so we thought it might be nice to look at two 19th century red, white and blue quilts in the collection of the The Museum of Texas Tech University.