Two Quilt Exhibits at the History Museum

We took a field trip to the Missouri Historical Society Museum with friends from our church on Saturday. Our destination was a special exhibit, Mary Lee Bendolph: Gee's Bend Quilts and Beyond, that will be on display until Sept.13. But I also took a side trip to see a small exhibit from the Museum's own collection of significant Missouri quilts, From a Common Cloth. One of them is the Baltimore Album quilt completed in the mid 1980s by founding members of the Flower Valley Quilt Guild before I became a member. The guild voted a few years ago to donate it to the museum, and this is the first time it has been on display. Each block is signed by the maker. Photography is not allowed in special exhibits, so I don't have any of the Gee's Bend quilts. I sneakily took just this one of the Flower Valley quilt, without a flash.

The Compton Heights Christian Church group that saw the Gee's Bend exhibit included our pastor Jacque and her husband, Dave, Norm and me, and Arlene, Liz and Kathy. We relaxed and shared our impressions in the museum's cafe, Merriweather's, afterwards. Those dark bottles are locally produced Fitz's root beer, always a treat. In addition to the quilts, we saw a documentary about the Gees Bend quilt makers that was created by Alabama Public Television. Their story is an inspiring one of how women in a small rural community over 4 generations or more transformed their post-slavery experience of "making do" with what was at hand into art. "I didn't think of it as art," says one of the women in the film. "But when I saw it on the walls of a museum, I knew it was art." If you live in St. Louis, try to see this exhibit if you haven't already. It's even free to city and county residents on Tuesdays. If you live away, try to catch the exhibit if it comes near you, or check out the video, The Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, which is available through PBS.

Now we are starting a new week. This week we will go to exercise, various appointments, and coordinate mailing of our church newsletter. Norm is going to preach next Sunday since our pastor will be at the Disciples General Assembly in Indianapolis.