Recording Southside VA Quilting Heritage

The Virginia Consortium of Quilters, the statewide quilt guild, is looking for your quilts. Volunteers will be photographing and recording information about local quilts and their makers in the Southside Virginia area for a statewide research project. Quilt owners are encouraged to bring their quilts made before the year 2000 to Lib’s Place on Saturday, January 11, from 10:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. Information collected will be added to a database kept at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg, Va.

The Documentation Day is part of an on-going effort to record Virginia’s quilt artistry and history. “About 25 years ago a statewide program was begun to create a database of older quilts in the Commonwealth,” according to well-known quilt historian Neva Hart of Hardy, Va. The original project took more than 5 years to complete and documented over 3,000 quilts. “We learned a lot about quilts from that effort, but the research published in 2006 only covered quilts made before 1900. Now we hope to document quilts we may have missed the first time and to document quilts from new residents,” said Hart. The book QUILTS OF VIRGINIA 1607-1899 documented the research and was published in 2007.

For the Farmville area Documentation Day is an attempt to gather together quilts by anyone who has a quilt whether they are involved in a quilt group or not. The main purpose of the research is to document the types of quilts in Virginia before that information is lost. The data gathered will be recorded for future use by researchers of history, genealogy and material culture in Virginia. Confidentiality of quilt owners will be protected. No names are given out or information made public without the owner’s consent.

There is a limit of three quilts per person but they are not limited to quilts of historical value or significance. “We’re also looking for 20th century quilts to see how quilters and quilt styles have changed over the past century. The emphasis will be on quilts made by Virginians, but all quilts brought to the Documentation Day will be recorded,” observed Hart. Each quilt will be measured, identified, dated and photographed. Any additional data available about the maker, dates, photos, and significance to the owner will also be recorded. The owner will fill out a form with information about the quilt, allow the quilt to be photographed, receive a cloth label with a registration number for each quilt and leave with their quilts and whatever documentation they brought with them.

Documentation Day is free, open to the public, no appointment needed, first come/first served. Neva Hart has many years of experience as a quilt historian and appraiser. She will be present to assist with the documentation process. Sponsored by the Virginia Consortium of Quilters and the many quilters in the greater Farmville area. Lib’s Place is located in Rice on Rt. 460 east of Farmville. For additional information call 434-392-1936.