Detail of 1837 quilt from Eastford, Conn. This quilt is one of several antique quilts that will be publicly shown during the Old Sturbridge Village's Textile Weekend.
:Rare early American quilts from the Old Sturbridge Village collection will be on display during Textile Weekend, August 8–9.
Visitors can view historic bed quilts and cradle quilts from the early Nineteenth Century, watch patchwork piecing and hand-quilting demonstrations, and see wool carded by water power for quilt batting. Village historians will present a lecture, "Piecing It All Together: A Time Line of New England's Early Quilts," at 11 am and 3 pm each day.
"This is a rare opportunity to see one-of-a-kind quilts that are not often on view," says Jean Contino, the village's coordinator of households, women's crafts and horticulture, noting the village's antique quilts cannot be on permanent display.
Among the artifact quilts featured in the lecture will be a pieced hexagonal quilt from Johnston, R.I., circa 1808; a wholecloth chintz quilt from Springfield, Mass., circa 1820–30; an "Orange Peel" or "Melon Patch" pieced quilt from Sturbridge Mass., circa 1825–35; a whitework quilt from Ware, Mass., circa 1839; and a red and green appliqué quilt from Braintree, Mass., circa 1850.
One of the most unique quilts to be shown at the lecture is a quilt made in 1837 by then 17-year-old Clarissa Moore (1820–1912) of Eastford, Conn. The quilt contains 32 pieced blocks in an eight-pointed star variation, alternating with bold red and tan large-scale chintz squares set on point. The pieced blocks are special because each one contains sections that were finely stenciled by Clarissa.
The quilt was passed down through the Moore family before it was acquired by Old Sturbridge Village.
Old Sturbridge Village is at 1 Old Sturbridge Village Road. For more information,
www.osv.org
or 800-733-1830.
