How to go
What: Lebanon Quilt and Fabric Art Show
Where: Warren County Historical Society Museum, 105 S. Broadway, Lebanon
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $6 per person
More Info: (513) 932-1817 or wchsmuseum.org
LEBANON — You can hang a quilt on a wall just like you’d hang a painting, but the Picasso in your possession won’t keep you warm at night.
The 28th annual Lebanon Quilt and Fabric Arts Show is this weekend at the Warren County Historical Museum, 105 S. Broadway, Lebanon.
The quilt show will feature more than 30 vendors from throughout the country selling new and antique quilts, quilt patterns, craft supplies and quilting kits.
“We’re going to be wall to wall quilts,” said Victoria Van Harlingen, director of the Warren County Historical Museum. “It’s a delight to the eyes.”
Quilts are the perfectly blend of form and function, Van Harlingen said. They are both a means of artistic expression and provide a practical use on a cold winter’s night.
The museum will also offer quilting exhibits from the Warren County Quilt Guild. This Maineville-based organization produces modern quilts, with emphasis on designs and artistic appeal, Van Harlingen said.
“They will showcase 21st century quilts, with different designs and colors that were unavailable to quilt makers of the past,” Van Harlingen said.
The museum will also have a display of 19th and 20th century quilts from the collections of Stella Rubin Antiques in Maryland and French 72 Antique Quilts from Yellow Springs.
The oldest quilt owned by the Warren County Historical Society dates from around 1790 and is signed — in stitching — “Fanny Washburn, age 28.” The large white cloth is covered with amazingly tight stitching designs that looks like embroidery but is actually a complicated form of quilting, Van Harlingen said.
Washburn was a pioneer woman who moved to Lebanon. Her family kept her amazing quilt through generations before it was donated to the museum. Today, it is rarely displayed, because of its age, but is being hung for the quilting exhibit.
In the 19th century, quilts took on an early form of recycling as quilters assembled large masterpieces out of scraps of discarded clothing and fabrics. Fabric historians attempt to date these quilts by determining the youngest piece of cloth sewn into the quilt, Van Harlingen said.
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