Wednesday, December 13, 2017

🚗 A Quilter's Road Trip 🚙

And a quilter's DH's road trip! We took a 4 day trip last week, and left Minnesota during a ❄ blizzard ❄. No snow by the time we reached Iowa. Our first stop: Iowa Quilt Museum, in Winterset. Who was behind the counter but Marianne Fons herself!

The view from the mezzanine floor:


There is a self-service bed turning, with history of the quilts:

"Bounty of Baskets" was the current exhibit, including 25 small quilts inspired by 19th century basket quilts, made by members of the American Quilt Study Group. 

Several had the original antique quilts beside the smaller copy:

When we arrived at the John Wayne Museum, several blocks away, they had closed already, due to winter hours. 😕 Instead, we set out to see a couple of the covered bridges that Madison County, IA, is famous for:

Day 2, Hamilton, Missouri, the birthplace of J. C. Penney, where we visited his museum.

Then the main attraction, Missouri Star Quilt Co. Love these fabric buntings along the counters:

Hall of Waters is in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Beautiful art deco architecture:
They had a Christmas tree display going on:
Next up, Independence, Missouri, and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum & Library:

A patriotic Christmas tree on display near the beautiful mural titled "Independence and the Opening of the West" by Thomas Benton:
And we made it to the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka, Kansas, in the late afternoon:

We got to do a virtual Evel Knievel motorcycle jump. Very realistic!

Many inspirational stories here about Evel Knievel's life! 

Day 3, the Kansas state capital building in Topeka.

Here's a view, looking up into the dome:

Love the beautiful stenciling around the walls of this room:

On to Abilene, Kansas. We had a fabulous 2 1/2 hour tour of the Seelye Mansion, built in 1905 for the Dr. Seelye family.

With eleven bedrooms, there were many quilts on display:


This original ironing board was very long, to accommodate pressing the ladies' long skirts of the day: 

Also in Abilene, we visited the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library & Museum:


His childhood home also stands on the grounds. Here are two crazy quilts that his mother made:

And in the museum they had a room dedicated to Mamie Eisenhower. I thought this dress of hers was beautiful:
Next on our trip was a stop over to Verneda's, a family friend and retired Japan missionary of 60+ years! Verneda lives in Lindsborg, Kansas, nicknamed "Little Sweden". But her home should be nicknamed "Little Japan"! Here are some of her Japanese things along with a quilt I gave her made of Japanese fabrics:

Day 4 took us to the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.

This display was "Voltage" by Erica Waaser of Germany:

"Sacred Scraps", from Central Asia. Check out these tiny flying geese:

I loved this chair they had covered in tiny triangle patchwork:
And I love their logo, many needles in a circle:

And back home! Mr. Grace & Peace is a road warrior and loves doing the driving. Here's what I was doing during the drive: hand piecing a "Minnesota Lucy" block, from the Sewing Seeds Quilt Co. in New Ulm during the Minnesota Quilt Shop Hop 2017:

What's your future quilter's road trip destination?
Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

Linking up to Let's Bee Social, Wednesday's Wait Loss, WIPs on Wednesday, Needle & Thread Thursday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, Powered By Quilting

18 comments:

  1. You had a very quilty inspirational trip! Love the patchwork chair. Your MN Lucy Block turned out great!

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  2. What a fun trip. You did a fabulous job documenting it. I really enjoyed this.
    Quilter Bonnie

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  3. I'm not going to tell you how many times we've driven past Winterset and I've hemmed and hawed about going there. Next time I'm stopping! I think we need to have coffee so you can tell me more about your trip; it looks like a fantastic time! My mom loved going to Little Sweden when she was visiting some relatives in that area. There was a fun Swedish shop that she enjoyed. Love your MN Lucy Block!

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  4. Thanks for sharing your adventure Nancy! I hope for Paducah some day and Houston too!

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  5. What a fun trip! Wish I could have been a fly on the dashboard.

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  6. What a fun trip! It looks like you had a great time!

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  7. What a trip! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. It really looks like it was fun :)

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  8. Hi Nancy,
    What a fun road trip! I have not been to any of the places you visited. How cool is that patchwork chair?! And the Seelye mansion looks fabulous. You didn't say much about MSQC - were you able to pick up any fun fabrics? You were quite productive during the road trip, too, and the block turned out lovely. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  9. Wow, what a trip! It's so perfect for any quilter looking for inspiration. Thanks so much for sharing this on Wednesday Wait Loss!

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  10. I would to see some of those places - sounds fun to do the virtual ride at the Evel Knievel museum. :)

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  11. Thanks so much for sharing you wonderful trip Nancy far to much for me to take in, I will have to come back several times to study all those fab quilts. Its like reading a very good magazine, you need to keep rereading it to see the quilts you missed . Question for you Nancy why did they cover the bridges in Madison????? Merry Christmas and wising you a wonderful 2018 Cheers Glenda

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  12. Thanks for a summary of your fabulous trip! I love reading it, it makes me feel like I got to travel to these places too. That giant sewing needle logo arranged like a clock is just so clever! I take it you didn't make it to Quilting Is My Therapy this time?

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  13. Sounds like a great trip and man you covered a lot of miles! I love that chair covered in little triangles.

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  14. I am amazed at how much you were able to fit into that one trip. So much to see and you did it. And stitched along the way. Thank you for sharing the photos. I enjoyed seeing all that came along the way.

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  15. I can't believe you did this in just four days! While I was reading your post I thought you with a tour group and you're one of the lucky quilters, like me, who has a hubby who will go on road trips. I'm itching to go on one soon, we are driving to Austin next year and hopefully there will be quilt shops on the way. Thanks for sharing your travel tale.

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  16. WOW! That looks like such an amazing trip! You saw so much stuff in such a short amount of time! <3 Your hand piecing looks fabulous! I would have gotten so car sick >_<

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  17. I would have loved to be on that tour! However, I don't live anywhere near Nebraska or Iowa, or, or! Or any of those other states mentioned.

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  18. What a dream trip!! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
    I live in Kansas and never knew we had an Evel Kneivel museum in Topeka.

    My guild is taking a bus trip to the quilt museum in Nebraska in May. I am so looking forward to the trip......that is if I can figure out how to have enough money to make the trip.

    I hope to get to go to Missouri Quilt Company some day as well.

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