American Museum, Bath

[mlsdesigns]

When we go to Bath for the Bath Minuet Company ball, we like to organise a day trip the next day, in kit, to a local National Trust place or something. This year we decided to go to the American Museum, which is housed in a beautiful Georgian mansion just outside Bath. The main reason for the visit though, being the quilt exhibition! There were dozens and dozens of gorgeous quilts, all in hanging glass cases that moved the like pages of a book :)
I was sensible and decided not to try to make anything new, we both have plenty of clothes in our Regency wardrobes! But I was feeling a bit burnt out 2 weeks before the ball, it seemed like the hand sewing of sack backs would never end, so I decided to treat myself to a bit of millinery therapy :) So, if you want to see pics of my new bonnet and the most fantastically amazing quilt I've ever seen,

Mummy with some of our group.



I thought I'd go all out with my blue and white colour scheme, and wear my lace stole. It's the longest one I've seen, and blew about in the wind so prettily :)



When we were half way round the museum we found the most beautiful stair well, it seemed to have been made especially for my outfit :D





My hat is made from the brim of an old straw hat (I reshaped the crown at Christmas time, and trimmed it with white 'swans down' for our Russian dance demo) with a buckram crown covered in ribbed silk.



The crown is based on the same pattern as my crazy green and yellow hat, but has a triangular tip :) I've always loved the hat Kate Beckinsale wore in 'Emma', http://janeausten.info/moviegowns/Emma3/EmmaKate/emmaredhattriangle.jpg and now I have my own version!



Now the quilt. This one was called a fan quilt, from the 1880s I think. It's made of scraps of silk ribbons, and some silk brocade fabrics. Each fan is different, and each fan is made up of different ribbons and fabrics.



I didn't get a full shot of it, this is about a third of the whole quilt.

The seams between the strips of ribbon are all decorated with a different embroidery stitch. the fans are all outlined with a different stitch too!



Whoever made this quilt had a wonderful imagination and a VAST amount of patience :)





I took several more photos, but they're all rather fuzy, while my macro button was very useful, not being allowed to use flash (understandably!) made it rather difficult.


Since reviewing the quilt photos I'm itching to do some embroidery or piece some patchwork blocks!

Comments

[jennylafleur.livejournal.com]

Your bonnet is so pretty! You are lucky I wasen't there, I would have been very tempted to snatch it off your head!

That quilt is amazing. Thanks for sharing!

[mlsdesigns.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You would have had a fight on your hands! You're very welcome, I was so blown away by that quilt, I could have spent all day looking at it, and still not seen all the different stitches!