Quilters Hall of Fame Not Over-the-Hill Yet!
Dear Quilter,
Sleuthing after family history is always a great past-time and becomes especially exciting if you are lucky enough to stumble across an old box hidden under the eaves in your great-grandma’s attic filled with yellowed newspaper clippings, sepia-toned photos, dog-eared wedding invitations and birth announcements from by-gone generations! What’s not to love in the search?
Historians love to create time-lines and establish mile-markers. It seems to help us “manage” as well as interpret the voluminous amount of information we have to deal with. Quilt history is no different. The late 20th century quilt renaissance is now reaching its “mature years”, if we use the metaphor of our fourth decade as the true beginning of our mature years. Forty is no longer “over-the-hill” as it was once viewed but rather on the cusp of entering prime productive years.
The Quilters Hall of Fame will turn thirty in 2009 and celebrate its 5th anniversary in the restored Marie Webster House so we are far from “over-the-hill”. We’re still a young chick! In fact, we are experiencing growing pains that now require the attention of a full-time director, and a Search Committee has just been appointed to find us a qualified person.
We are grateful to report that The QHF has operated in the black from the beginning of the restoration work on the Marie Webster House and continues to do so since we opened as a museum. We could not have done this without the support and generosity of our members and benefactors.
We now step out in faith that quilters and quilt history lover across the country will once again dig deep and help us with this next major step in our growth - the hiring of a full-time Executive Director. Our goals remain the same - to celebrate quilting as an art form by honoring and documenting the lives of those who have made outstanding contributions to the world of quilting. In the process we are committed to offer outstanding quilt exhibits 3-4 times a year in the restored Marie Webster House, as well as lectures and workshops on quilt history and class instruction on learning how to quilt.
Quilts have been woven into the very fabric of American and much of European history since the 1700s, once the industrial revolution made fabric more readily available to the average household. Quilts then became a vehicle of women’s history and family history; economic history and political history. And every time the town crier attempts to convince the public that quilts are passe and women are no longer making them, interest in quilting comes roaring back. Yes, quilts are here to stay!...and stay!...and stay! Please help us make The Quilters Hall of Fame and the Marie Webster House here to stay also!
To go forward, The QHF must have a full-time Executive Director, and that requires quilters across the country putting their shoulder to the plough again! I know we can do it if we all pull together! The QHF in the Marie Webster House stands as a symbol of our quilting heritage and we intend to pass it on! You may watch the mail for our special fund raising events, but why wait to give? You may make a donation anytime ear-marked “Executive Director Fund” for we are stepping out in faith and beginning the search NOW!
Karen B. Alexander, President, The Quilters Hall of Fame
PS. To send your donation NOW, just use the enclosed Celebration registration form and mark the appropriate donation box.