seminar – Page 5 – Amherst Quilters Guild

Our annual fall seminar where we host national and local teachers, learning new things and having a great time with other quilters.

April 17, 2012

so how old is it?

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. The oldest quilt in the Western World…how old is it? It’s been dated as between 1360-1400 AD. Where from? Sicily, Italy. Where is it now? In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. What about it? Known as the Tristan quilt, it’s a wholecloth quilt, telling the story of Tristan and Isolde. Go to the link for a photo and its full story. Amazing to me that it is still around, in pretty good shape considering its age and past circumstances. That prompted me to spend a bit of time around the internet, looking for old quilts. Wow-what a mass of information is out there! I went to YouTube and searched for “history of quilts”. Too many results to summarize, but if this topic is of interest to you too, give that search a try. The history of quilts in general, the history of quilt […]

April 13, 2012

the simple life

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Going to try to have a simple day today. Going to grocery store to find something non-processed for dinner. I’m thinking homemade pasta fagiola. One of my college roommates, 100% Italian, had a mom who thought I should be able to make a few “from scratch” Italian specialties. There was no sauce in a jar to be found in her house. She always served pasta fagiola when I visited since I loved it, and it was the first recipe she taught me. Definitely is a humble folksy dish. I have modified it a bit-added a second type of bean, and a second tomato product, but she would recognize it-I haven’t gone Food Network on it at all. (Let me know if you’d like the recipe; there’s another feature of this blog I could try!) It’s even better the second day, which is a good thing […]