A German art collector in the neighborhood got hooked on Amish quilts some years ago, and now part of her collection is on view in the modern art museum. This is wonderful for local quilters! Except that the show is entirely from the "modern art" viewpoint, the graphic designs and use of color. Nobody involved in writing the catalog apparently ran it by a quilter. Of course it's enlightening to see how non-quilters think about quilts, but at the same time irritating to have blocks mis-named, and nothing more than the bare minimum about the textile aspect.
The women's club wanted a group tour and volunteered me to lead it, because I'm in charge of our needlework group. So I did some research on the Web and found that the Amish did not quilt at all until coming to America, that the first ones arrived in Pennsylvania at the invitation of William Penn. And that in the early years of Pennsylvania colony, a third of the population was Welsh. Nobody has any clear documentation to offer, but there's plenty of connection between the Welsh strippy quilts and square-in-a-square designs, and the Amish designs. The tour's in 10 days, so if any of you have some brilliant insights to offer, feel free! There's a book out, "Making Amish Quilts", which explores the connection, but I doubt it would arrive in time. Anybody own a copy? Is it worth buying? Roberta in D, new to the tour guide thing