Land of Lakes Quilt Study Group July 2003

The July meeting of the Land of Lakes Quilt Study group (17 participants) featured a presentation on Patriotic Quilts by member Jean Loken. She had a wealth of photos to enhance her 'time-line' format presentation, taking us from the earliest examples she could find to present day quilts such as those created in the aftermath of 9-11. Various symbols such as the eagle, stars etc were pointed out as well as designs with political inspiration throughout history. It was easy to see that one could spend a great deal of time studying this particular type of quilt and it's many examples - and Jean piqued our interest and excitement of the genre.

Betsy Shannon, the Minnesota Quilter who created the quilt used for the cover of America From the Heart; Quilters Remember September 11, 2001 by Karey Bresenhan was at the meeting showing photos and talking a bit about her background and that of the quilt. Member Gail Bakkom brought her quilt which was published in Quilts from the Civil War (Brackman and Petersen) and told about it's creation. Other examples shown included a " Liberty Star" quilt - purchased in Houston right after 9-11 dated c. 1920, a beautiful example of an embroidered state quilt with a patriotic feel, a 1958 pieced strippy, the Eagle and Shield quilt and several other quilts with enough red/white and blue to lend a patriotic feel!

Our group has more than doubled since the first meeting of 13 last fall. We continue to meet immediately following the monthly Minnesota Quilter's Saturday meeting and are open to all MQ members and others for a nominal fee. The rest of our meetings for 2003 are planned and we will be brainstorming soon about our vision for the group in 2004.

The pictures on this page are all thumbnails. Click on them to see them close up.