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Quilt Treasures

The Quilt Treasures Project features individuals who helped push the 20th Century Quilt Revival forward.

Overview
“Quilt Treasures are the special women and men who were key to the American quilt revival of the 1960s and 1970s, reawakening interest nationwide in the history, craft, and social and aesthetic value of quilts. They ensured the preservation and documentation of quilts through the state and regional quilt projects and they took quilting as a cultural expression to new heights. As creators, teachers, communicators, and links in a growing network, these ‘quilt treasures’ built an art form and an industry that today involves and touches millions of Americans. As these individuals began to retire from active involvement in the quilt world, an important piece of American social and cultural history was at risk of being lost.”
–Alliance for American Quilts co-founder Shelly Zegart, 2003

The Quilt Treasures Project is a collaborative effort between The Alliance for American Quilts, the Michigan State University Museum, and MATRIX: The Center for the Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online to document the stories of a limited number of notable individuals — quilt makers, designers, business people, collectors, scholars, publishers — who were instrumental in moving the 20th century quilt revival forward in some significant way.  The quilts featured in this gallery are examples from the Quilt Index that were quilted, inspired, or collected by one of the Quilt Treasures. 

Individuals currently documented or soon to be documented as Quilt Treasures include
• Virginia Avery
• Cuesta Benberry, noted African American quilt scholar​
• Jinny Beyer, artist
• David and Patricia Crosby
• Joyce Gross, editor and publisher, The Quilt Journal (1977-1987)
• Jean Ray Laury
• Bonnie Leman, founder of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine
• Cy Nelson, collector and editor of quilt publications
• Yvonne Porcella
• Bets Ramsey, co-director of the Tennessee Quilt Survey
• Hystercine Rankin
• Mary Schafer
• Merry Silber
• Woodard and Greenstein

Selected Related Publications:
Crosby, David. Quilts and Quilting in Claiborne County: Traditions and Change in a Rural Southern County. Port Gibson, Mississippi: Mississippi Cultural Crossroads, 1999.
Dubois, Jean. The Colonial History Quilt. Wheat Ridge, CO: Leman Publications, 1976.
Gross, Joyce and Cuesta Benberry. 20th Century Quilts: 1900-1970: Women Make Their Mark. Paducah, KY: American Quilter's Society, 1997.
Marston, Gwen and Joe Cunningham. Mary Schafer and Her Quilts. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Museum, 1990.
MacDowell, M.; Richardson, J. (31 March 2005). Trant, J.; Bearman, D. (eds.). "Multi-purposing Museum Media: Quilt Treasures Oral History and Documentary Web Portraits". Museums and the Web 2005: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics. Retrieved 26 August 2008


View all records in this project

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  • Museum

    Michigan State University Museum

    Michigan Quilt Project

  • Documentation Project

    The Quilts of Tennessee

    Tennessee State Library

  • Quiltmaker

    Ramsey, Bets

    Tennessee Quilt Search

  • Story

    Quilt Treasures Presents: Bets Ramsey

    Marsha MacDowell

  • Story

    Quilt Treasures Presents: Cuesta Benbe...

    Justine Richardson

  • Collection

    Cuesta Benberry Quilt and Ephemera Col...

    Worrall, Mary

  • Story

    Quilt Treasures Presents: Virginia Ave...

    MacDowell, Marsha

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