Recently my ride-or-die/neighbor/friend Linda suggested a day-trip to Golden, Colorado to visit the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. Our timing worked out perfectly — we happened to choose a bright and sunny afternoon following a days of snow to make our 1.5-ish hour trek to Golden.

The museum is small but mighty! Since we arrived right as the doors opened, we had their docent’s full attention. This was immensely helpful to me, as I became immediately aware that I didn’t know jack about the process of quilting.

Steve, on the other hand, knows his stuff (and, naturally, is a quilter himself). He gave me a crash course on how quilts are made, what to look for in a quilt, and the specific techniques that were used for all of the quilts in their current exhibition. (The museum has a permanent collection of quilts, but also features a rotating exhibition of quilts made to a specific prompt — in this instance, the quilts all used a method called English paper piecing.)

By the end of our tour I knew how to hunt for different approaches to the piecing, fussy cutting, interesting quilting stitch patterns, and more. There is much more intricacy involved beyond what I picked up, but I walked away with enough to really appreciate the artwork in the museum. So labor-intensive!

Below are a few shots of my favorite quilt on display. It features images of gemstones in bright jewel tones, and the quilt itself took an irregular form. It’s a quilt after my own heart for sure.

Linda preferred the quilt, below, with its artful “unraveling” at the edges of the flowers.

Thank you, Linda, for sharing another of your interests with me and for giving me the chance to learn about a type of craft I’ve never studied before. Now I must fight my usual tendency to become completely obsessed with said craft and come home bearing armfuls of wild and motley fabrics…

P.S. The next exhibition is quilts by men! I love this!