Saturday, July 12, 2008

Laconner Quilt Museum WOW!!!! Another great part of our Shop Hop Trip

Hello Again. I had to work a couple days and now I have time again to make another page of our wonderful trip to washington coast!



If you want to see previous posts about our trip , you can scroll down the sidebar on the right and it will be in the month of June or something like that, I cant remember off the top of my head right this minute. Or at the bottom it has a link that says previous or older posts and you can click that.


I realized on the first post that I had some of the shops out of sequential order but thats because I was tired, rushed and blogger was having fits with me so I just gave up and left the post the way it was. Sorry about that.



Anyways, on to the wonderful LaC0nner Quilt Museum!


Boat art on the boardwalk in LaConner. I really liked to see the little pieces of art and sculpture while we were waiting for the Museum to open.
A little bird house that we took a picture of on the main street.



It was low tide on the water, and also the condos are really cool looking with the cedar shingles!
The bridge in the background, and a sculpture of an Eagle with rocks and grass, this was out on the boardwalk.
I love old wood boats so of course I had to take a pic of this one
We are inside the Museum now! This is the raffle quilt in the main entrace
I thought this was a great quilted respresntation of the Gaches Mansion! Almost looks like a Rebecca Barker piece





This house is HUGE! I am standing across the road to get the entire building into the camera frame. I cannot imagine the work that the hired staff had to do to keep this wonderful place clean! Merav and I sit on the front porch and one of the museum helpers took a picture of us. That was very kind of her!
There are photos on the walls of the house back in the day of its prime. There was a large fire that burned up the 3rd floor and it was restored when the place was bought to become a museum
Fire in action, I can imagine that this was a very hot fire!
Timeline of the mansion , who owned it, when it burned, and when it was restored, and when it became the museum. Not sure if you can click it to make it come up larger but you can try.




This quilt was laying on the huge table in the formal dining room. It had a notebook and questions. What was the name of this quilt, and when would it have been made?
The quaint little umbrella stand at the entrance. Isnt that just the neatest thing, and see the boots underneath?
This is a very pretty painting of the mansion with quilts all outside hanging on the fence.

The quilt is an antique hanging in the front side room just as you enter. I would think this might have been the mens den or mabe a sitting room for guests who waited for the butler to call the owner of the home.




This little sideboard was full of silver service trays of many sizes and uses! I was very impressed to see so much all in one place :) GORGIOUS antique crazy quilt made in the late 1800's if I remember right. I hope you can click on it to see closer details.
On the left is the servants stairs, and on the right was the owners and guests stairs. And the servants were never allowed to use the owners stairs. I had read about this in books of the old times but had never seen one in person before!
Piano in another one of the rooms, probably the living room where the fireplace was located
a little spinning wheel set up, and there was another very large one set up in another one of the rooms.
This would have been the way to cook meals back in the day. Build a fire in the stove, put the kettle of water on the back to warm up and bake the biscuits and fry the eggs all the while keeping the fire going to keep the food hot!And the kitchen was actually small compared to the rest of the rooms in the house
Lovely little treadle machine in one of the rooms.




Very ornate chandelier in the formal dining room, and this thing was HUGE!
Here is the main fireplace in the sitting room. I have wondered if those photos would be the owners of the Gaches Mansion back in the day?
Baby highchair, I cant see my kids sitting still in that one! They would have climbed out and took the blocks with them hahah.
another sideboard in the kitchen with antique dishes in it.
This case holding antique quilts was on the 3rd floor, with the exhibits, actually it was located in the little tower room (round room on corner)
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OK following are the quilts displayed on the second floor. It is the Traveling exhibit for "SPICE OF LIFE" which will be auctioned off at the APNQ quilt show in Seattle during August. It traveled around the USA for 2 years before coming back home again.






Bathroom, look at the porclain shoe collection over the pitcher and bowl
Heres that large spinning wheel I mentioned earlier



This one is a beautiful one, nature capturedd in fabric


I WANNA BUY THIS ONE!!!! Can somebody bid on it and send it to me as a RAK?
This is the same scene but done by a different person with brighter fabrics. Merav really liked this one.






This one is really pretty too, some of it shimmered but you cant see it in the picture




This was a cool one too, the gradiation of colors






And then there is whimsy in the exhibit too! You might be able to click it and make it larger to see the printed notes, it was so funny!

This one was SO perfect, for SPICE of life. I was so inspired that I bought several pieces of coffee prints and would like to make something similar.











Once you have seen all the entries you could vote on your favorite ones. Well THIS is the one I voted for. It was embellished with sparklies, beads, angelina, and just looked LOVELY up close and personal. I wouldnt mind buying this one too!

My threee favorite things. Quilts. Flowers, and Sewing machine, even if it was an antique treadle.





Left was a garlic farm and right is jars of spices. Very nice!
Lovely flowers!
Im not sure if this was actually in Spice of Life, if I remember right it was on the stair wall but it was still a very unique piece!
Well, of course we have spices of India and very well made too




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ON the Third floor is a special exhibit by a woman named Anita Mayer. Her arts are very unique and very enjoyable to look at! I got some close ups of her detailed pieces , they are very inspiring for those who like to crazy quilt like I do!A blurb about the woman who does these peices One of her journals that was at the exhibits, she had a journal for every one of her pieces but this is just an example of her journal








This particular jacket seems to appeal to me the most out of all of the jackets. Probably because they are colors that I use alot in my own projects. See the close up detail and you see that Anita used alot of tiny pieces like confetti and then overlaid with tulle and hand quilted through all layers.


and of course of the jackets with doilies hand died and beaded with embellishments this might have to be my favorite of the style. But I also really like the black one with bright doilies on it. See close up for detail of beading

Since we arent allowed to touch, but from looking up close I believe this may be felted wool or something similar to wool. it was thick and slightly fuzzy textured.

matching hat that is also decorated with braided rope, sequins and beading all over








Those are hand dyed doilies sewn on to dangle and swing as the person walks in the coat, musch like the clapper fringe styled dresses of long ago.





This one made me think of a ancient middle eastern royalty outfit with cap. Very richly decorated with beads and quilting
This particular jacket is a reversible piece with dark colors on the outside and very bright colors on the inside. Very creative!
Im not sure why the pictures of this one didnt turn out as well, but this one is my other favorite with black as the background and brightly colored doilies hand died and beaded all over.
This jacket really impressed me with alot of antique laces and hand made pieces as well. See close up for detail. Also had a matching hat that went with the outfit. I think of this as a Wedding outfit but Im not sure if thats what Anita had in mind when she made it.


it was made with silk dupioini or some other type of heavy silk fabric. The color isnt really true here but in real life it was like a coffee creamer color of cream, rich and delicious!


Some of Anita's scarves that she had made and displayedAn ornamental piece that Anita made to go with one of her outfits but Im not sure which one
















3 comments:

WIPPYSPLACE said...

OH MAN! thanks for such a wonderful tour! love the art and scenic quilts! That building that houses the museum is awesome!! *~*CAROLE*~*

Gabriele said...

Thank you for sharing all of those wonderful pictures! The quilts are all very inspirational and the house is wonderful!

Susan said...

What fabulous pictures! Thank you so much for sharing. If I can't go myself, you've given me a great tour!