![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
As promised, here's the update on the American Quilt Studies Group 2007 seminar, held in scenic Lowell, Massachusetts, in a hotel that overlooks a sign claiming that Lowell is "The Venice of America."
Really.
I got on the road at 2:00 and had a reasonably smooth drive to Lowell...although someone needs to tell the state policeman who thought that his flashers were enough to warn motorists on the steep, nasty off ramp from 495 into Lowell that there was a major accident on the ramp, that no, he should have put out flares after several carsincluding me nearly slammed right into him. Gave me a turn, and would have been hideously ironic to have died a hideous death less than five miles from my destination.
Anyway - got to the Lowell Doubletree, which was surprisingly luxurious and had one of the friendliest hotel staffs I've ever seen. I had a king single, which meant a featherbed on the mattress, a feather comforter over me, and enough pillows to provide for the average family of four. It was rather like being cocooned, and quite comfy. :D
The opening banquet was fine, as I met up with several friends and listened to a terrific keynote lecture on the Cocheco Fabric Mill and its line of calicoes. We then had the annual Show & Tell, where the 400 top quilt historians in the country display their treasures. I brought an Egyptian applique table covering I picked up for a song back in the 1990's, but the real find was one of the rarest types of quilt: a U.S. Sanitary Commission quilt. Literally thousands of these utilitarian quilts were made for Union soldiers during the Civil War...and this makes all of *three* known survivors.
We also had a creepy quilt: a very, very strange quilt of appliqued hearts and embroidered slogans about Loyal to God and Purity and Blood. It *might* be a Klan quilt, but the owner is still working on the provenance. There was an audible gasp as she displayed it, and a sigh of relief as the owner said her next step was to contact The Southern Poverty Law Center, a major civil rights think tank.
After the banquet I went back to my room and turned on the TV for a few minutes, and saw a Futurama episode I'd wanted to see for years: Where No Fan Has Gone Before. Let's just say that I, too, mourn for Welshie...:)
Saturday started with an early breakfast, three excellent papers, and then a box lunch at my roundtable on early quilts. I got about a dozen people, including a SCAdian from Glenn Abhenn and the mother of a SCAdian from Northshield (she got an extra copy of my hand-out for her daughter). It went well.
I then did a little shopping, scoped out the silent auction, and took a nap. Dinner was less formal, and featured an excellent lecture on the Underground Railroad quilt controversy. I left during the auction and was in bed early, where I slept pretty well.
Sunday was a buffet breakfast featuring the limpest bacon I've ever seen (*ugh*), three more excellent papers (including one called "Rachel's Tat," about the amazing textile collection of the late Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth. We then had a tribute to Cuesta Benberry, an invitation from next year's Seminar committee to attend the 2008 edition in Columbus, and a buffet lunch with decadent brownies for dessert.
I left after lunch and had an uneventful trip home, after which I unpacked and collapsed. It was an exhausting but enjoyable weekend, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
However, the trip to Italy will likely put the kibosh to attending Seminar next year...not to mention that the Columbus area seems to have an unusually high concentration of "gentlemen's clubs," based on the FIVE advertisements for same in the city's official Convention and Visitors' Bureau pamphlet. Also, the hotel will be the Courtyard by Marriott at the airport, which makes me scratch my head a bit....
Really.
I got on the road at 2:00 and had a reasonably smooth drive to Lowell...although someone needs to tell the state policeman who thought that his flashers were enough to warn motorists on the steep, nasty off ramp from 495 into Lowell that there was a major accident on the ramp, that no, he should have put out flares after several cars
Anyway - got to the Lowell Doubletree, which was surprisingly luxurious and had one of the friendliest hotel staffs I've ever seen. I had a king single, which meant a featherbed on the mattress, a feather comforter over me, and enough pillows to provide for the average family of four. It was rather like being cocooned, and quite comfy. :D
The opening banquet was fine, as I met up with several friends and listened to a terrific keynote lecture on the Cocheco Fabric Mill and its line of calicoes. We then had the annual Show & Tell, where the 400 top quilt historians in the country display their treasures. I brought an Egyptian applique table covering I picked up for a song back in the 1990's, but the real find was one of the rarest types of quilt: a U.S. Sanitary Commission quilt. Literally thousands of these utilitarian quilts were made for Union soldiers during the Civil War...and this makes all of *three* known survivors.
We also had a creepy quilt: a very, very strange quilt of appliqued hearts and embroidered slogans about Loyal to God and Purity and Blood. It *might* be a Klan quilt, but the owner is still working on the provenance. There was an audible gasp as she displayed it, and a sigh of relief as the owner said her next step was to contact The Southern Poverty Law Center, a major civil rights think tank.
After the banquet I went back to my room and turned on the TV for a few minutes, and saw a Futurama episode I'd wanted to see for years: Where No Fan Has Gone Before. Let's just say that I, too, mourn for Welshie...:)
Saturday started with an early breakfast, three excellent papers, and then a box lunch at my roundtable on early quilts. I got about a dozen people, including a SCAdian from Glenn Abhenn and the mother of a SCAdian from Northshield (she got an extra copy of my hand-out for her daughter). It went well.
I then did a little shopping, scoped out the silent auction, and took a nap. Dinner was less formal, and featured an excellent lecture on the Underground Railroad quilt controversy. I left during the auction and was in bed early, where I slept pretty well.
Sunday was a buffet breakfast featuring the limpest bacon I've ever seen (*ugh*), three more excellent papers (including one called "Rachel's Tat," about the amazing textile collection of the late Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth. We then had a tribute to Cuesta Benberry, an invitation from next year's Seminar committee to attend the 2008 edition in Columbus, and a buffet lunch with decadent brownies for dessert.
I left after lunch and had an uneventful trip home, after which I unpacked and collapsed. It was an exhausting but enjoyable weekend, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
However, the trip to Italy will likely put the kibosh to attending Seminar next year...not to mention that the Columbus area seems to have an unusually high concentration of "gentlemen's clubs," based on the FIVE advertisements for same in the city's official Convention and Visitors' Bureau pamphlet. Also, the hotel will be the Courtyard by Marriott at the airport, which makes me scratch my head a bit....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 01:57 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 02:06 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 02:13 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 03:44 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 03:01 pm (UTC)From: