Taking Quilt Study

into the Future

American Quilt Study Group (AQSG) connects quilt enthusiasts through research and community. We study, collect, and enjoy textiles ranging from the earliest quilt fragments to studio art and modern quilts.

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    Join us for AQSG Seminar in Portland, Maine

    October 15 - 19th, 2025

    The 2025 AQSG  Seminar Committee welcomes you to join us for our 46th annual event!

    There will be a Welcome Reception, Study Centers, wonderful speakers, Buy it Now and silent auction items, extraordinary vendors, and of course the wonderful live  Auction. This promises to be a fabulous event—in spectacular Portland, Maine! 

    Registration begins Saturday, June 7th!


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    Quilt History Snippets

    Articles by AQSG members featuring interesting quilts, makers, or patterns they have come across in their research.

    June 4, 2025
    What: Review of Uncoverings 1994, Volume 15 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group , edited by Virginia Gunn Topic: “An Album of Baltimore Album Quilt Studies” Author: Jennifer F. Goldsborough As a participant in “planning the 1994 exhibition of its Baltimore album quilt collection,” Goldsborough we able to participate in and observe at the ground level the study and process leading up to the Lavish Legacies exhibition. Goldsborough’s paper “delineates the methodology of the study and the contributions of several sorts of historians, conservators and contemporary quilters as well as discussing the most important findings and conclusions.” [p. 73] Goldsborough spends some time describing Baltimore album quilts, their creative history, and their distinguishing characteristics. The details are specific and a good primer for newcomers to the story of Baltimore quilts. Dr. William Rush Dunton, Jr.’s contribution to the story of the revelation of Baltimore album quilts in the twentieth century is credited and an important point that cannot be dismissed. Likewise, Dena Katzenberg’s catalogue and exhibition of these quilts which traveled across the country between 1980 and 1982 is given its due. [p. 76] Goldsborough details her personal research process and activities which began when “the Maryland Historical Society committed to a study and exhibition of the Baltimore album quilts in its collection” for the 1994 exhibition season. [p. 77] This is well described and a good guide for all of us as we try to do our own quilt research. Central to her process was the ability to collate information from hundreds of Baltimore quilt images and sort them into groups which she then organized according to relative complexity and sophistication. [p. 77] From this process Goldsborough developed three conclusions which she describes on page 78. Goldsborough describes the work of previous scholarship in defining specific designers of Baltimore quilt blocks and their specific characteristics. She then begins to detail the questions the team sought to answer or clarify in their pre-exhibition research. It was a bit like peeling the layers of an onion from the nineteenth century and is very informative for us in our own research processes. Her insightful and thorough summary on page 105 is long, detailed, and multidisciplinary in its approach. Finally, Goldsborough’s observations of the creative process in the designing and making of a Baltimore Album raffle quilt provided her opportunities to compare and contrast her conclusions and assumptions about the making of the original Baltimore Album quilts. She identifies herself as an outside observer and her descriptions of this process are equally interesting and insightful. It is striking that she was “reinforced” in her “belief that it is risky to interpret a quilt’s symbolic and emotional content without a sure record of the maker’s own deepest thoughts and feelings.” That’s a lesson we all can take to heart as we do our own research and reporting. [p. 108] This is a valuable source and guide for anyone interested in quilt history and in researching a quilt or a group of quilts. The notes and references section should be a good guide for anyone wanting to do their own research on any quilt(s).
    May 1, 2025
    Quilt History Snippets May 2025
    April 9, 2025
    What: Review of Uncoverings 1994, Volume 15 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, edited by Virginia Gunn Topic: “Aesthetics and Ethnicity: Scotch-Irish Quilts in West Virginia” Author: Fawn Valentine
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    See Yourself in AQSG!

    Featured Publication

    Uncoverings

    Uncoverings, the annual peer-reviewed journal of AQSG, features papers that present the most recent advances in quilt-related research. The cover of Volume 45 (2024) is The Mary Worrall Parry quilt, 1844-1845, and is inscribed with the names of a small group of families that were friends and neighbors in the Ridley Township, Delaware County, in southeast Pennsylvania. Photo courtesy of Cathy Erickson; photograph by Jennifer Charbonneau.

    Uncoverings

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