New England Quilt Museum Celebrated Its Silver Anniversary in 2012

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Begun by an enthusiastic group of local quilters in 1987, the New England Quilt Museum celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2012. The museum is a landmark in the heart of America's historic textile-producing region, housed in a 19th century former bank building in the heart of lovely downtown Lowell, Massachusetts.

The museum is the only institution in the northeast solely dedicated to the art and craft of quilting, both traditional and contemporary. Through special exhibits, workshops, lectures and a variety of community outreach activities, the non-profit New England Quilt Museum studies, preserves and promotes this very American art form. The Museum Shop carries a wide variety of books, jewelry, fabric, toys and other items of interest to the quilter and non-quilter alike. The Permanent Collection contains antique and contemporary quilts, quilt tops, textile samples and sewing ephemera, portions of which are rotated out of storage and displayed as part of four or more special exhibitions mounted each year.

The museum is also host to the annual Lowell Quilt Festival, a citywide celebration of quilts each August. Partnered with other museums and galleries around Lowell, the Festival features IMAGES,New England's premier judged and juried quilt show.

Your Name on a New Museum Treasure
SILVER ANNIVERSARY
SIGNATURE QUILT

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Design: Jacque Thompson, Mary Furber
As a major fundraising project for our 25th anniversary, we’re creating a signature quilt embroidered with the names of our favorite people –
our supporters!

The finished quilt will be displayed in the museum and become part of the permanent collection.

Our goal is to raise $25,000
to support museum education programs and the care of our permanent collection.

For a $250 tax-deductible donation, you can have your name (or the name of your guild, friend or loved one) embroidered on a New England-inspired star, mountain, maple leaf or sailboat.

To request to be included on this special Silver Anniversary Signature Quilt, complete the registration form (click here to download) and send it along with your donation of $250 to:

SILVER ANNIVERSARY SIGNATURE QUILT
18 SHATTUCK ST.
LOWELL, MA 01852

You can also make your donation securely online by clicking on the DONATE button below. In the "Special Instructions" box, enter the name you wish to have embroidered on the quilt. 

SILVER THREADS QUILT CHALLENGE

No one has more imagination than a quilter. In honor of our 25th anniversary, we challenged quilters to create a quilt inspired by the word "silver". The rules were very simple: basically, quilters were asked to create a small quilt illustrating what "silver" meant to them.

The entries were displayed in a special exhibit at the 2012 Lowell Quilt Festival. They were also on display at the museum in November & December, 2012.

WINNERS!
1st place: Reflections of Tao by Diane Loomis (Sudbury, MA)

2nd place: Like a Silver Bow, New-Bent in Heaven by Sara Schechner (West Newton, MA)

3rd place: Hi-Yo Silver by Wendy Caton Reed (Bath, ME)

Viewers' Choice: Silver by Barbara Polston (Phoenix, AZ)

Throughout 2013, this wonderful collection will available for loan to guilds, schools, libraries and others. After that, the quilts will be returned to their makers.

To inquire about borrowing the Silver Threads challenge quilts, email Collections Manager Laura Lane (collections@nequiltmuseum.org) or call 978-452-4207 x11.


SPOONFLOWER SUPPORTS NEQM

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We are very grateful to Spoonflower.com, the online fabric design source, for supporting the museum's 25th Anniversary by donating the special fabric that we designed for our silver anniversary year. The fabric was used for unique shop items and for gifts to major donors.

Thanks, Spoonflower!