Quilts and German/Russian Immigrants in Lincoln, Nebraska

      When we travel we often look for train stuff for Rick and quilt stuff for me.  Today we did my "quilt thing" and visited the International Quilt Study Center and Museum on the campus of the University of Nebraska. The quilts were displayed in a beautiful new building called "The Quilt House."   There are more than 4,500 quilts from 50 countries created over four centuries.  Only a hundred or so quilts are on display at a time.  We learned that after a quilt has been displayed for a total of nine months it has to go into storage for ten years.  This process is meant to keep the fabric from deteriorating too quickly.  I was happy to see that so many of the quilts that were on display were historic and were actually what I define as a "quilt."  Lately many displays include many items that I call "textile art" rather than a quilt.  These art pieces could never be used for warmth, but are only made to be diplayed on a wall.

    We planned our visit to arrive for what turned out to be a great tour.  One of the first quilts was a series of blocks from drawings made by school children in each state.  When the quilt was finished the senators from each state were invited to spend a night under the quilt and then sign the block.  Dave Durenberger and Rudy Boschwitz signed the Minnesota block!  The oldest quilt on display was over 200 years old, made of a beautiful chintz fabric printed with birds and was still vibrant with color.  My favorite was a crazy quilt  called "The Everybody Quilt" created in 1985 by Nora Ezel.  It came Robert and Helen Cargo collection of African-American collection.  It wasn't a quilt of perfect seams and stitches, but it was bursting with color and I could feel the passion of the quilter who made the quilt.  Loved it!
    We spent the afternoon at the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.  A short film chronicalled the history of the Germans - mostly from southern Germany - who emigrated to Russia after an invitation from Catherine II who was a German herself.   Between 1763 and 1820 thousands of Germans moved to Russia to settle in small villages and farm.  They became very prosperous.  They were promised that they could keep their own language and culture and did not have to do service in the Russian military.  However, that all changed one hundred years later when the Russian army began conscripting Germans.  Several hundred thousand Germans left Russia
and came to the United States and Canada.  My paternal grandmother, Amalia, left Russia with her family and settled in Regina, Saskachewan. A map at the museum showed that one of the major emmigration paths was from Dresden, Germany to Kherson, Ukraine.  I have always wondered why my father told me that my grandmother was German but her whole family came from Ukraine.  Now I know!
   It was an amazing day of art and history.