Pennsylvania Road Trip - part 3

We got into Bedford, PA late afternoon on Saturday.  We checked into the hotel and watched the end of "The Devil Wears Prada."  It was a good movie and I wish we'd seen it from the beginning.  I'll have to do that sometime.  So anyway, we ventured out and found us some dinner at a local steak house.  After dinner we came back and settled in for the night.

Our first stop Sunday morning was Mary Koval's Quilt Shop.  All of the fabrics in the shop are designed by Mary and are antique reproductions.  We also checked out the retreat center she has upstairs.  I can see a girlfriends getaway in the future.  Oh yes I do!

Here's the prefect dot fabric I mentioned the other day!  The red matches the stitching colors and the dots have aqua in the centers!  I couldn't ask for anything better.  Now I really can't wait to finish stitching that Hands on Design!  I got the paisley because I can't resist them and you don't see good paisley that often.

After we left the quilt shop we headed over to our last stop on our grand adventure, The National Museum of the American Coverlet.  It is in Bedford too!  It is housed in an old school building.  What an incredible place. 

This is Laszlo Zongor.  He and his wife, Melinda, run the museum and he was our personal tour guide.  What a fountain of knowledge this man is!  I could have listened to him talk about coverlets all afternoon.  Simply amazing.  Here he is telling us about jacquard looms.

The first room he took us through had examples of the different styles of coverlets.  This one is woven by a French weaver who also happened to be female.  We learned that women were not allowed to own property at that time.  However this lady inherited her equipment from her father.  She is the only documented female coverlet weaver.  Her name was Sarah LaTourette.  She originally migrated from Canada to Indiana.  Oddly enough she ended up in the part of Indiana where I'm from originally.  How fun!

This one was woven by a very famous UK weaver who ended up in New York state.  You may recognize the lions in the corners.  Those are known as Harry Tyler's lions and are a dead giveaway that this is one of his coverlets.  UK weavers favored two colors, blue/white or red/white.  They favored a clean edge finish without fringe.

Next was a coverlet woven by a German coverlet weaver.  The German weavers had a fancy for multiple colors and fringe on all four sides.  This particular coverlet did not have a weaver's attribution.

The fourth one in this room was done by Nathaniel Young who was a Dutch weaver.  His coverlet had fringe on two sides.  We learned that fringe is not a hard and fast clue to origin though.  It was all about what the customer wanted to buy.  We also learned that the reason you see reversible lettering and corner blocks is for the customer's benefit so they could enjoy whichever side of the coverlet they favored since they are reversible!

This was another interesting thing we ran across in the museum, an inventory sampler.  I've never seen one of these in person.  It was super neat to see.  I have an old chart for one somewhere.  Hmm...might have to go stash diving!

Here's a look at the room from the first picture.  These coverlets were so well presented.  I just can't say enough nice things about this place!  If you ever get near Bedford, PA it is definitely worth a stop.  I even think the menfolk would enjoy it too.  The most amazing thing about this museum is that it is run entirely on donations from the public and most of their collection is donated too.  Now this is the type of place I like to support!  They even encourage pictures and selfies.  LOL!

After we left the museum, we stopped for a quick bite at the golden arches supper club aka McD's and got back on the road toward home.  This was a funny sight from the road.  I snapped this picture for all you coffee lovers out there.  How's that for a vat of coffee?!

We had pretty good weather the entire weekend with the exception of the way home.  We ran into some pretty intense storms.  I don't know if you can make it out but we got to see a rainbow!  I just had to stick my head out the window and try to snap a picture.  I just love rainbows!  It seemed fitting to see this one after such a wonderful weekend spent in the company of one of my dearest friends.

Well folks, there you have it.  I hope you enjoyed going to Pennsylvania with me.  We truly had the best time!  We are already planning next year's trip.  Thanks for stopping by today.


Have a great weekend!

The Inspired Stitcher