Loose Threads, my small group that grew out of a larger quilt guild, had a fun outing on Friday. We went to the American Swedish Institute (ASI) in Minneapolis. First we had a great lunch at the restaurant inside ASI: Fika. The food was beautifully presented and really good; the service was exceptional.
I had meatballs with some kind of potato "sauce" and lingonberry.. so delicious!
This is called Buttermilk something.. the little white crumbs tasted sort of like shortbread, the white main thing was custardy, with strawberries and sorbet. Yummy!
This was my first time inside the ASI. What a fabulous building! It was built for a Swedish immigrant family who made it big in the newspaper business. It was a couple and their one child. This gigantic mansion was built for three people... and they were not fond of entertaining, so it's not like they frequently filled the space with guests. They really must have rattled around inside that big place. I am going to show you some of the quilts that were on display, and some details of the building itself. Here goes:
This first quilt was made of ties. It looks like one of us is touching the quilt, but she's not.
The female figures were made entirely of black thread. Amazing work. I forgot to get a picture of the whole quilt.
The house has a basement and three floors, with tons of fancy rooms on each floor and a few million fireplaces that are very intricate, made of a variety of materials.
The above exhibit room is in a newer addition to the building, I think. This display is quilts made by members of Minnesota Quilters. One of us from Loose Threads had a quilt included in that display, and you can see her here, correcting the way it hangs so it wouldn't look so "lumpy" - we know better than to run around touching quilts like crazy, but she's allowed to touch her own quilt. She didn't really like the way it looked in this display (partly was because she hadn't figured out how to do a hanging sleeve on a circular quilt - does anyway know how to do that?).
Many of the quilts included intricate thread work and a variety of layers of other fabrics and objects. I want to learn more about how to do those kinds of quilts. See that lovely space with all the windows? I would love to sit in there reading a good book!
Sorry, I did not get the artists' names and information on most of these.
above middle: detail on one of the fancy fireplaces
3/4-inch diamonds!
another great place to read!
Ain't that the truth!?
3 comments:
Awesome house and awesome quilts! Thanks for sharing.
Such a wonderful place to visit!! We have been there several times when we have come south from Roseau! Wish we could be there to see those beautiful quilts! So much creativity and talent.
I've visited this Swedish House but there wasn't a quilt show when I was there! I'd like to visit again after we settle in to our new home in Minnesota. Thanks for sharing the quilt display. Looks like a lovely lunch with your quilter friends.
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