Appalachia's regional art, culture, music and crafts have not only survived generations of population explosion and migration. Its heritage crafts are today still passed on to younger generations and are celebrated and evident just about anywhere one looks.
Especially quilts. How many of you have ever attended a quilting bee? Or watched an aunt or grandmother create a quilt? I never had that luxury in my youth, so perhaps that's why in my old age I've become such a quilt-appreciator.
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Contemporary Quilts, found in museum shops, art guilds, craft fairs -- bold, geometric, and colorful with defined designs; many are machine-quilted in a wide variety of designs.
Museum of Appalachia, Tennessee
Remember that these were sewn, embroidered and quilted ENTIRELY by hand. In the enlargements, note the tiny, tiny, exquisitely, perfectly identical stitches.
The Quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama, deserve their very own blog page. I'll get to it eventually!
Joan Taylor, no slouch herself with a needle, just left this link in "Comments":
I had some difficulty opening the page and just noticed, for some reason, when I copied it "http://" appears twice. Just delete one of them and try again.