Behind The Scenes

The first order of business was a BEHIND THE SCENES tour of this joint.

The first room was where they "assess and score" the quilts that have been submitted for consideration.

Two quilts were being assessed that morning...this one, from a French Designer (it had a lot of raw edge silk)

This quilt will be part of a special exhibit that will be hung this fall. It's called "Cheddar"...(DON'T YOU LOVE IT??)

Then, we entered the very controlled area where most of the quilts are stored.  Very few quilts are actually on display.

These cabinets hold drawers...where the most fragile quilts are laid out, and stored FLAT.

The bulk of the  quilts in the collection are locked away in this climate controlled warehouse, carefully indexed, then folded and stored in these special archival boxes.

When a quilt arrives, it's put into a two week "quarantine" to make sure it doesn't have dust mites, moths or insects that might contaminate the collection.

Row after row...hundreds of boxes...all with cataloged quilts...

It was such a special tour.

Rhonda specifically wanted to see this leather quilt. It is a raring horse...

Nobody had to tell us to NOT TOUCH THE QUILTS.  We looked closely...and we studied the stitches...but nobody even came close to putting a finger on these works of art.

The quilting on this leather quilt was little horses...can you see it?

Really...horses everywhere...and thousands of lines of stitches...

Our docent turned up a corner, so we could see the stitching on the back side.