Speaker Series, 2017: Fawn Valentine, West Virginia Quilts and Quiltmakers: Echoes from the Hills

On May 24, Fawn Valentine, a West Virginia quilt expert, will be in Shepherdstown to”read” local quilts from 1 to 3 p.m. and to give a talk, “West Virginia Quilts and Quiltmakers: Echoes from the Hills,” at 7 p.m. In addition, throughout the month of May, the Historic Shepherdstown Museum will display three quilts loaned by the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. The quilts, created by highly skilled Shenandoah Valley quilters of the 20th and 21st centuries, exemplify several Valley quilting styles. Historic Shepherdstown’s quilts will be on display as well. If you suspect this exhibition is going to lead to you catching the quilt-making bug, it might be worth purchasing a fabric cutter machine in the near future.

The afternoon quilt reading will take place in the reception room of the Entler Building at 129 E. German Street. Community members are invited to bring no more than two quilts for Ms. Valentine to read. She will discuss the style, period, and materials used, but will not do appraisals. Preregistration is required for this event since time is limited. Call or e-mail Historic Shepherdstown at 304-876- 0910 or [email protected]. Registrations will be accepted in the order received. Spaces are already filling up.

Fawn Valentine’s 7 p.m. talk on WV quilting, which is part of Historic Shepherdstown’s 2017 Speakers Series, will take place at the auditorium of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education on King Street on the campus of Shepherd University.

Both events are free and open to the public.

The display of Museum of the Shenandoah Valley quilts will begin on May 6 and run through June 3. The three quilts will be on display in the Shepherdstown Museum during the Museum’s regular hours, on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. On exhibition will be a Pineapple White Work quilt, a Wind Rose or Mathiesen Mariner’s Compass Variation quilt, and a Broken Dishes Pattern quilt. All have been on display in U.S. Embassies around the world as part of the State Department’s Arts in Embassies program.