Dana Meeting House comes alive in colors, history at Timeless Textiles Day

NEW HAMPTON — The Dana Meeting House Association will host Timeless Textiles, a day of quilts old and new, at the historic Meeting House in New Hampton on Saturday, July 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In addition to traditional and contemporary quilts, the event will include talks, historic displays and demonstrations on natural dyeing. There will also be a corner for kids to draw and make squares for a paper quilt.

Timeless Textiles is co-curated by guest quilt artist Eileen Lovett, of Holderness, and artist. She’s also a board member at Blair Folts of Effingham.

“The Meeting House is a perfect venue for displaying quilts and other unique textiles,” Lovett said. “We are excited to again partner with New Hampton Historical Society who will display some of their textiles as well as several of their costumes. Quilting, sewing, mending and knitting have always been about community and it is doubly special to display the quilts in a meeting house built in 1800 and harken back and think about how things used to be.”

This year’s Timeless Textiles featured quilter is Michelle Plourde. Plourde is an active member of the Belknap Mill Quilt Guild in Laconia. At 10:30 a.m. she will speak informally and share her quilting story.

“I would have to say that my road to quilt making began when I was about 10

years old when my mother introduced me to her sewing machine,” she said. “I absolutely love the way that lines of quilting create movement and depth and breathe life into a quilt top. Rarely does a day go by that I am not working on some part of the quilt making process whether that be the piecing of a quilt top, laying down quilting lines or taking pictures of a tiled floor in a hotel lobby that will provide inspiration for a future quilt or a new quilting design. I love piecing a quilt top from the newest pattern I just discovered or working on an original piece that might take me years to complete. To date one of my most favorite quilting projects has been a collaborative one between my great grandfather and myself but that is a story for another day.”

Plourde and Lovett will speak informally about the work inside the Dana Meeting House 10:30-11:15 a.m.

At noon there will be an informal discussion by historian Stephanie Drake on how to date a quilt. She will talk about different fabrics, patterns and quilting techniques and how one can learn to identify when and where things were made. Attendees are invited to dig out old textiles and bring them to share with Stephanie who may be able to help date them and tell a bit of their story.

A new addition to Timeless Textiles Day is work on hand by Sara Goodman as well as a demonstration on indigo dyeing. Goodman’s work embraces both form and function as she integrates the ancient textile arts of weaving, natural dyeing, shibori, block printing and stitching. Using the luxurious natural fibers of wool, silk, linen and cotton, she creates clothing to adorn both home and body. Goodman will be speaking about her work inside the Meeting House at 11:15 a.m. and will give a natural dyeing demonstration under the tent at 1:30 p.m.

There will also be a raffle to raise funds for the Dana Meeting House. The raffle prizes will be drawn at the Ice Cream Social on Saturday, July 27.

For more information, visit danameetinghouse.org.