Sewing With Nancy

Combine a farmstead, committed historians and dedicated quilters, and what do you get? The answer, a refurbished old barn that is now the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. The quilt barn museum has become a must-see destination for quilt and fiber enthusiasts. I'd like you to welcome Terri Kirchner who is now the president of this all-volunteer organization. She is here to introduce you to this very magical place. Welcome, Terri. Thank you, Nancy. You know, our program goes beyond Wisconsin much further than Wisconsin. I invited you to be our guest because the Wisconsin Quilt and Fiber Museum has become a destination place. Yes, it actually has been for a while but now we just expanded our footprint, so to speak. It started with purchasing some land a vision of many people, I know but purchasing a small farmstead. Yeah, we own a small farmstead out on the edge of town in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. It's about 2-1/2 acres. We saw it more as a place where we could build. We started in the farm house, and then we moved, with vision to create an exhibit space in the barn. Having quilts displayed in a timber constructed barn must be beautiful. It is, because you've got the height. You've got these beautiful, huge quilts. Imagine a king size quilt, if you put it on a regular wall it kind of just takes over the space. It looks actually very appropriate when you've got it in a two-story timber framed barn. This has been a long journey for your group. Yes, it has. It started off as the Wisconsin Quilt History Project back in the late '80s. Then it merged into the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. When we realized our documentation program we needed places for the quilts that people were donating to us. What a wonderful area to showcase them in but you had to raise a lot of money. We did. It took us a long time. We raised it mainly, $50, $25, a lot of bake sales, as we said. But we ended up raising almost a $1.5 million to build this facility. Earlier, I mentioned historians. Conservationists were interested in this project and that's where a majority of your funds came from. Yes, we have a wonderful following in historic preservation. As you know, Cedarburg is very proud of its history. We have a lot of very unique historic preservation sites. Our little farmstead is one of the last remaining German farmsteads available so we try to keep it as natural looking as we can. I like your motto, "Create, Preserve, Educate." Yes, well, as you know, as a quilter and fabric person we like to bring in fiber arts to help build things show people how to do it, and then preserve our history. That's really where the basis of our project began is in the documentation stage finding out why people made quilts and why were they so special. We've written a book on that. We've also taken those stories now and collected them. We've got nearly 8,000 documentations now. Impressive to know what the stories are behind the quilts, what a great thing. You also have, as I mentioned earlier a totally volunteer group, which I think is quite phenomenal. Yes. We're totally volunteer. Not a paid member on the staff. We've got a very dedicated group. I would say we probably have about 150 regular volunteers but we have a very dedicated board. We have 15 on our board. We meet every week especially now that we're opening a new facility. We meet and we do everything, from the lawn work to cleaning the toilets to greeting our guests. Guests, you have quite a few guests a day. We do, now that we have the facility open we're averaging between 40 and 60. We get a lot of international visitors, too. So it's a destination to see beautiful quilts and architecture. There's a learning facility. Yes, we have two large classrooms in the lower level of the barn, and we do do classes. We had David Taylor, a nationally known quilter. We'll have you next year at Quilt University! Terri, what a wonderful experience for others to appreciate quilts in such an architectural showcase. It's phenomenal. Thank you for this opportunity. You're welcome. If you'd like to learn more about the Wisconsin Quilt Museum go to nancyzieman.com where you'll find all things Sewing with Nancy. Click on Nancy's Corner, and then you'll be able to find Terri Kirchner and the Wisconsin Quilt Museum. Also at that site, you'll be able watch the most current 52 Sewing with Nancy programs online, streaming video. So, if you'd like to re-watch part of this program or watch another program you can do so at your convenience. Next time, we'll be back with our final program of our episodes on "One Easy Pattern, Six Terrific Looks" with Amy Barickman. I hope you'll join us then. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now.