On Saturday we drove west to Bath to meet up with our daughter and take a look round the American Museum. On the way we passed the iconic World Heritage Site of Stonehenge. Apologies for the quality of photos taken through the car windscreen but it’s too amazing not to share 🙂

Thanks to the wonders of sat-nav we found the Museum without any bother. It is housed in Calverton Manor which was built in the early 1800s. The grounds are very pleasant with dramatic views across a green, wooded valley. There’s a statue of Lincoln in the gardens and a sheltered area reproducing George Washington’s garden in Mount Vernon.

The Museum was opened in 1961 as a place to display American decorative and folk art – the only such collection outside of the USA apparently. Inside the Manor we followed the route through rooms giving a chronological insight into North American history, displaying artifacts, reconstructed rooms along with contemporary pictures and clear, helpful information panels.
The museum houses a collection of quilts 🙂 They are displayed on a giant carousel, each quilt covered in a protective layer of plastic, in a room with no natural light. These conditions, plus the understandable restriction of ‘no flash photography’, mean the following photographs may not be of the best quality but I hope you will enjoy them. I’ve paired up each quilt with it’s information card.








Finally a series of three red and white quilts. Check out Melanie’s recent posts about her quilt group’s show which included a red and white quilt category – lovely photos and some great information about the origins of the red and white tradition.



There were many more quilts, all worthy of mention. I’m linking with Beth for Main Crush Monday ‘cos who wouldn’t crush on these quilts and their makers who got us patchwork quilters to where we are today? 🙂 This week Beth shares a lovely story of the generosity of a quilter.
Allison