Missouri Star and State Historical Museum of Iowa
As I researched for our trip to Des Moines, I quickly realized that Hamilton, Missouri was on our way! This town is the home of the Missouri Star Quilt Company, whose video tutorials have kept me company on many a day of quilting. I had never even thought of going there, until I read a whole series of posts by Tierney, about a retreat weekend she had there, which made me really want to go. (I linked to the second in the series because it explains so much about the town.)
So after leaving the museum of the steamboat Arabia, we made the short trip to Hamilton. With my husband comfortable ensconced in Man’s Land, I was free to explore most of the shops.
He looks pretty relaxed for a guy contemplating how much money his wife might spend.
It was a cold clear day, with few customers. There was someone working in each shop and they always greeted me. The first shop I went into was the sewing machine shop, and the lady there encouraged me to take all the pictures I wanted, so I did! She said she knew it could be overwhelming. (I did not say, um, yes, I do the International Quilt Festival in about 3 hours every year, while thousands of other women are jostling me, so I have been training to handle this amount of fabric opportunity.)
I should have paid more attention to the town map, because some of the stores apparently have a second floor, and I did not go to any of those. But I enjoyed the decorations, both holiday and quilt-related.
As I had recently bought a lot of fabric at home, I managed to refrain from buying any here, and only bought some back issues of the magazine, Block, in the original store. I didn’t get to go into every shop, or see the World’s Largest Spool of Thread, or go to the Missouri State Quilt Museum — but Tierney went there and wrote a lovely post about it so you can visit virtually.
We drove on to Des Moines, and the next morning I dropped my husband off at his business appointment there, and then I went on to the State Historical Museum of Iowa.
They had a very interesting quilt from 1886 hung on the wall. There was a card that said the quilt was done as a fundraiser, but that is all the information they had.
I loved looking at the variety of embroidered motifs that people contributed. (I didn’t use flash to take these pictures; Photoshop Elements lightened them up with the “Auto Levels” option, and they came out in slightly different shades.)
There was also a coverlet from 1856 hanging up. I have never seen one with these motifs of blossoms and grapevines, or this vase of loose long-stemmed plants. The imagery seemed much more light and linear than the usual coverlet. And after I got home and checked in my coverlet reference books, I couldn’t find one like it either. But the museum had no information about it.
1856 coverlet in the State Historical Museum of Iowa. At this time, these would have been natural dyes that were used.
Corner block.
Delicate blossoms.
Vases with long-stemmed plants.
I would have loved to see the effect of the striped wefts on the other side. I played around in Photoshop and the other side would look something like this, but with more color in the flowers and less in the background:
Rendition of the other side of this doublewoven coverlet.
After my visit to the historical museum, I went to the botanical garden for a little while. And just as I was getting ready to go to the art museum, my husband called me to pick him up, because there were work problems back in Houston, and we had to head home. So I was in Des Moines less than 24 hours, and didn’t get to see much on the way home either. But I am so glad I got to see what I did, and I am ready to jump into the car for another trip whenever we can go!
Thanks for sharing your trip! Fascinating photos.
What memories this evoked! I was raised in Newton, about thirty miles from Des Moines, and we often traveled to Des Moines to shop, visit the museums, etc. My first school trip was to the state capitol there, and my first out-of-town date was a trip there to see Peter, Paul, and Mary in concert.
But that’s not the only thing that started the memories flowing. On the 1886 quilt, in the ‘boot,’ I noticed the name of Estrella Hulse. My dad’s good friend, Don Hulse, was from a family that had been Iowa pioneers. I found one of his advertising pens online. Don and his wife not only played bridge with my folks, he played Santa for all the kids in my dad’s engineering department for years; I had no idea who ‘Santa’ was until I was in college.
Of course it’s hard to say without some real research whether Estrella was an ancestor of my dad’s friend, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some connection, particularly since the Hulse family’s been in the state forever. In any event, the quilt was a surprise that led to a lot of memories.
Hurray! I am glad that quilt had some depth of meaning for you, beyond the “isn’t that a unique motif?”
When I used to teach, sometimes I would get kids in class that had the same last names as early Texas pioneers, and I would say, “Oh, I bet you are part of the Old 300!” and they would absolutely not know what I was talking about. 🙂 I knew more of their history than they did.
I’ve been to MSQC a few times now, and the nice thing about not getting to everything on the first run, is that there will be more to see when you go on your next visit. Looks like you had a lovely trip!
I love the idea of a whole town devoted to quilts 😊
Man land! What a great idea! My group has looked at a trip to MSQC but it is farther than we want to go. Glad you got to go instead!
Yes, it is very nice if you happen to be in the area. They do have quite an assortment of fabrics but it would probably be easier to shop with them online.