Please join me in welcoming guest blogger Margery Newman as she shares with us the new Milwaukee Art Museum and quilts from the "American Quilts: Selections from the Winterthur Collection" exhibit. Thanks Margery for sharing this fabulous exhbit with us.

I had the great pleasure of leaving my home in what some people this summer are calling the Baked Apple (NYC) for a day, and heading out to Milwaukee where I visited the Milwaukee Art Museum and the exhibition "American Quilts: Selections from the Winterthur Collection". The show is on until September 6.

I was excited to see selections from one of the finest collections of early American quilts when my car pulled up to the Museum and I beheld the jaw-dropping futuristic architecture.

And inside, the museum was just as stunning! That’s Lake Michigan you see out the window.

In the Museum lobby, the signage for the exhibition shows a detail of an appliqué counterpane quilt by an unknown maker from around 1800-1825. It’s influenced by Indian palampores (a type of hand-painted and mordant-dyed bed cover made for export) and features birds and a butterfly cut from fabrics printed by John Hewson, a Philadelphia calico printer who learned his trade in London.

Here’s the quilt in its full vibrant glory depicting a tree in flower with curling branches and heart-shaped leaves. It’s so unique and feels to me like the tree of life. (Photo credit: Maker unknown, Appliqué counterpane, 1800–25. Cotton, 100 x 92 in. Courtesy, Winterthur, Museum purchase with funds provided by Mr. Samuel Pettit in memory of his wife, Sally Pettit)

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I thought I’d try something new here at the Quilting Gallery, Share-It Tuesdays! I’d love to see what you’ve been working on lately. Share your recent quilting-related projects by adding a link to your blog post below.

Over the weekend, I got caught up on Bradie’s Summer Star Sampler quilt and got back to working on Rachel’s Pinwheel Sampler quilt. This quilt got put on hold a couple of months ago, but I’d really like to finish it this summer.

Here’s my Block 6:

See blocks 1 to 5 here.

I also cut out Blocks 7 and 8 as well as the sashing, cornerstones, scrappy binding, and top/bottom border fabrics.

I was inspired by this quilt here, to add top and bottom borders of squares. The quilt should finish around 56″x68″.

So, what have you been working on?

I made some changes last week to the Quilting Bloggers directory. For each blog, you’ll now see the latest 3 blog posts. I’ve also added integration with Facebook, so you can “Like” blogs here and share them with your friends on Facebook.

If you’re blog is not showing the latest posts, there are generally two reasons: (1) your blog’s RSS feed is broken or does not exist; or (2) you are not using the Title box in your blogging software. See this post for blogger/blogpost help.

Interesting fact: Of the 4,338 blogs in the Quilting Bloggers directory, 3,393 are blogspot web addresses (does not include domains hosted at blogspot). More than 78%. ‎236 are WordPress.com blogs or 5%.

More than 200 blogs were removed from the directory as they no longer exist.

You can help keep the directory up to date. If you see a blog that is no longer relevant or is broken, you can click the little cloud/comment-like icon that appears on the right side of the blog title. Enter the info on the next page, then I’ll get a notice to check it out.

Hope you like the new changes!!

Congratulations to Cheryl Hartzog for winning last week’s virtual quilt contest: Seashore quilts. She wins a $30 gift certificate from Around the Block Quilters Shop.

This week’s theme is Summer Vacation and is sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop. Two lucky winners will each receive a layer cake of their choice.

Fat Quarter Shop

Hello again, Quilting Gallery fans! I hope you’ve had a restful summer with plenty of A/C blasting!

With summer comes this week’s Quilting Gallery weekly contest theme, summer vacations — where has this season taken you? Hopefully somewhere relaxing, cool, and with Internet access so you could still keep up with Fat Quarter Shop happenings!

It’s been quite a summer for us, with a slew of giveaways at our blog and Christmas galore in the shop! All of our Christmas lines (check out our Christmas department for an idea of how much we are looking forward to Winter!) have arrived, as well as many of our Autumn collections.

We may even have a great sale or two up our sleeves to make room for more of these fabrics, so sign up for our newsletter to stay updated! Or, "Like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for other easy ways to see shop updates! We have started posting weekly Facebook and Twitter specials you won’t want to miss.

Our TWO prizes for the top two winners this week are Layer Cakes of the winner’s choice! Here’s one possibility:

Once again, a big thanks to Michele for letting us participate in this week’s challenge, and good luck to all of you Summer Vacation-ers!”

To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EDT). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

Blog It

Please share the logo below on your own blog. The more contestants, the more exciting the contests!