Hello. I'm Deanna Springer live at the Great Wisconsin Quilt
Show and I'm joined by Anne Dawson. Welcome, Anne. We're
standing in front of your exhibit, the original 1876
Centennial Project. Yes yes, that's a lot. And there are a
lot of quilts here. There are a lot of quilts here.
>> There are 17 quilts here from this project. The original quilt
from which all of these quilts have been derived. It was made
in 1876. Hence the long and cumbersome name. So it's an
antique quilt. It's an antique quilt where it started back in
2015. I was asked to draft a pattern for this by a group of
friends where I live on Lopez Island in Washington State, and
eventually I agreed to do the project in concert with the
quilts owner. The antique is owned by Barbara Minasian and
she lives in Connecticut, so we did this all long distance over
the internet. Wow, >> we have the technology to do
that now. Yeah, we do. >> Without the technology, this
project would never have happened. And so this is a
photograph of the original quilt I made in 1876 for the
centennial. different designs going on, many
different blocks. Initial blocks in there.
there. And on the original quilt it says EMC. Unfortunately, we
don't know what those initials mean because there's no
backstory to this quilt. >> Well, maybe someone will
recognize it. >> I keep waiting for somebody
to say, I know that quilt. I have one that looks just like it
at home. The quilt was founded in estate sale and purchased out
of an estate sale. So the owner doesn't know anything about it?
Yeah. In Connecticut, in Connecticut, in Manchester,
Connecticut. sampler?
medallion center medallion blocks in it.
>> 74 blocks. What size is the original quilt? The original
quilt measures about 89in square. So a nice bed quilt, a
nice bed quilt. make one that is about 80 to
90in square, you can supersize it with a border if you like as
well. king size. Okay. Got it. All
right. All right. And how did you get started once you drafted
the pattern, did you put the call out to make. No I, I
actually drafted the pattern about two weeks ahead of the
group of people I was teaching. Oh.
then we got started, and I worked 60 plus hours a week
drafting the patterns. All from photographs, because I didn't
see that quilt for the first year.
>> Oh, my. >> And then I led them through
this pathway in about a year and a half later, most of the tops
were done and another year and a half later we actually premiered
our exhibit in Houston in 2018 at the International Quilt
Festival. Yeah, which was really a thrill for all of us.
>> Wonderful. Well, that's where our publicist, PBS Wisconsin
publicist, Tara, saw your exhibit and said, we need to
bring this to the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show.
>> I'm so happy you just called me up and said, hey, we'd love
to have you. And I said, could you bring your quilts?
>> Of course. Yeah. They're just lovely. So these are all your
students quilts? quilts. I do have one in the
exhibit, but primarily, you know, the rest of them are all
students, all the way from expert quilt makers to people
who really had not done this kind of work before, all from
Washington, no coat makers, many of these quilts are from
Washington, but there are quilts here from Colorado and Utah. I
think Michigan, the variety of states, lots and lots of people
around the country have done them as well as overseas,
Australia and Europe. So international. International.
>> Yeah. Well, congratulations. >> Exciting.
>> People from all over the place.
You know, quilting always brings people together. Quilting
>> Yes it does. It totally does. >> And since you were going to
be here, we invited you to do some teaching. Tell us what
you'll be teaching this week. >> I'm going to be lecturing in.
The title of my lecture is the Quilt That Changed My Life. And
this quilt totally changed my life. What I'm doing today is
quite different from what I was doing nine years ago when this
all started, and I'd love to share that with folks.
>> Well, we look forward to attending your lecture. Thank
you. And learning more about this. And you have to come and
see this exhibit and all the other special exhibits at the
Great Wisconsin Quilt Show to learn more about this year's
event and next year's event, head over to Quilt Show.com.