Name: Dream It Quilt It
Address: US

I know my people will understand when I say I look for quilts everywhere I travel. That being quilt shops, museums, shows, etc. I’ve even been known to find a local quilt show while passing through, leaving my family sleeping in the hotel, while I caught an Uber there and back – returning before my family even finished breakfast. True story! And thank you to the Smokey Mountain Quilters of Knoxville, TN. Holla!🙌🏻

The hubster and I recently decided to take a weekend getaway to our nation’s capital. We live in the Raleigh, NC area, and a long weekend in DC isn’t a difficult trip to make – 4 hours by car and horrible northern Virginia traffic, a longer train ride, or a 40 minute flight. We opted for the latter with hubster’s flyer miles. (He travels often with work, so hanging out in the airline lounge, and being upgraded to first class regularly.

If you’ve never been to DC, managing which museums, monuments, tours, and restaurants you want to hit is a logistical matrix of scooters, metros, buses, Ubers, bicycles, and hoofing it. It is just like planning a Disney vacation. You have to plan where you want to go and when to ensure everyone gets to see what they want to see and do in the allotted time. Just like Disney, while everything looks close on the map, it is actually miles of walking from one place to another.makes flying an even more attractive option.😉)

Here’s where one or both of us wanted to go:
The Capital Building (including a tour)
The Supreme Court (to included one of the 30-minute daily talks)
The American Indian Museum (awesome weaving exhibit)
The Postal Museum (surprisingly awesome)
The Building Museum (one quilt on display🙂)

We also needed to fit in our moonlight trolley tour which takes you to monuments lit up at night. Super cool!

That in itself is quite optimistic, but it doesn’t include nearby attractions you want to sneak a peak at while you’re in the area – like the Botanical Gardens (photo right) next to the American Indian Museum. It also doesn’t include unforeseen events like the fire alarm going off one hour before closing in the American Indian Museum and having to plan to go back the next day. (Yes, they had to empty out the entire museum for a false alarm, and it took the fire department 45 minutes to arrive and clear the place for reentry.)

With my quilty mind, I was of course chasing quilts the whole time. I was able to incorporate my quilty mind by looking at architecture incorporated in the museum buildings, but there was no getting around wanting to see actual quilts.

dream-it-quilt-it-national-archives-ceiling

dream-it-quilt-it-national-archives-ceiling2

From trips past, I knew (shockingly) the American History Museum only has about 5 quilts in its collection, and only 1 or 2 on display at any given time. I knew from a friend the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Museum had a large collection, but I wasn’t in the mood to see antique quilts. I wanted to see something more modern.

The African American Museum of History and Culture has a collection on display. That’s where I wanted to go! But by the time I figured it out, we were there and the timed entry passes were taken for the next several days. FYI – the AAMHC is one of the three museums that require timed entry passes (free), but you will not be admitted as a walk-in without one. You must have the pass.

So I hit the world wide web lol. Turns out the Smithsonian Art Museum annex has a Renwick Gallery near our hotel – and it was currently showing this traveling exhibit: We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists. YES!! Sign me up. Actually we just had to walk in and I got my quilty fix.

All of the exhibit you can see on their website here, but I took a million pictures – actually one hundred to be more exact. Here I’ll show you my favorites and why.

Any of the images can be clicked on for a larger view.

This one really struck me because I liked what the maker said about leaving the threads out. She had a meaningful reason for doing so. Read about it in the description to the right here.➡️

This one below showing the scales of justice I really liked because my husband is in law school. Also, read the author’s description about what the buttons symbolize. Love it!

What I love about this one is the traditional, on-point, 9 patches as the background. As for its meaning, I never new about this Flint water issue. Read about it in the description to the right here.➡️

This little girl below caught my attention for the soft colors, the patchwork, and the strawberries. It’s also packed full of symbolism.

The last one I want to show here is in the first room. It is packed full of symbolism. What I really loved though, is the shadows it made on the walls! Click here to go to the website and read about it.

There was so much more to see, and they were all fabulous. The exhibit was very well attended. Click here to see everything as seen on the website.

I mentioned before I went to the Museum of the American Indian. They had an amazing exhibit by a talented weaver, DY Begay. Check out the exhibit on their website here.

While her exhibit certainly isn’t quilts, I liked learning about how she uses her environment and light to influence her color, which is certianly applicable to quilts. They showed the pictures which inspired her pieces next to her work. Even my husband found it interesting, and actually suggested we go to it!