Southern Quilts: Originality and Making Do | Brown Bag Lecture with Merikay Waldvogel

In conjunction with the feature exhibition Stories in Stitches: Quilts from the East Tennessee Historical Society's Permanent Collection guest co-curator and nationally and internationally known quilt historian Merikay Waldvogel will share her favorite Southern quilt stories, including several from the exhibit.

Merikay Waldvogel was born in St. Louis, MO.  She studied languages in college and taught ESL in Chicago before moving to Knoxville, in the late 1970s.  Her first book Quilts of Tennessee resulted from the state quilt survey she and Bets Ramsey conducted in the 1980s.  Her next books, Soft Covers for Hard Times and Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, focused on quiltmaking during the Great Depression.  Childhood Treasures: Quilts Made By and For Children is her latest. She wrote an article in Smokies Life (Vol 1 #1) called “A Quilt Historian Gets Her Wish: A Day with the Walker Sisters' Collection.”  In 2009, she was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame.

The lecture is held in conjunction with the new feature exhibition Stories in Stitches: Quilts from the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Permanent Collection. From histories handed down to mysteries that remain, the new feature exhibition at the Museum of East Tennessee History provides visitors the opportunity to learn the "stories in stitches" from the quilts that have been entrusted to the East Tennessee Historical Society. Stories in Stitches features more than two dozen quilts with dates ranging from c. 1820 to 2001. The exhibition is on display in the Rogers-Claussen Feature Gallery of the East Tennessee History Center through January 2, 2018.

The program is sponsored by the Genty Griffey Funeral Chapel & Crematory and is free and open to the public. The lecture will begin at noon at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville. Guests are invited to bring a “Brown Bag” lunch and enjoy the lecture. Soft drinks will be available for purchase.  For more information on the lecture, exhibitions, or museum hours, call 865-215-8824.