McKinley Day is tomorrow!

I hope to see you all tomorrow at our annual McKinley Day celebration in honor of William McKinley's birthday!

Scroll down for the complete schedule of events.

The Wreath Laying Ceremony will take place at 3:00 PM. Please join us for this moving tribute to our 25th President.

2010 quilt exhibits slide show!

Click here to see the McKinley Campaign Quilt that was included in allpeoplequilt.com's slide show of 2010 quilt exhibits!

We are definitely in good company. There are a dozen quilt shows featured, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London!

McKinley Day program

Click on the images below to see the entire schedule of activities for McKinley Day THIS SATURDAY!!

Coverlet sneak peek!

Here is one of the oldest artifacts that will be on display in A Stitch in Time -- a locally made coverlet from 1838!



The exhibit opens in the Keller Gallery on February 26. Hope to see you there!

Storage building update

Here are the latest photos of the new storage building, courtesy of Steve Secrest!

Amazon Author Page

I just set up my Author Page at Amazon's Author Central.

As I was browsing through it, I found that some kind person recently left me a wonderful review on my first book Canton: A Journey Through Time! Click here to check it out!

Quilts are DONE!

Thanks to my volunteer Kathy, all of the quilts for the exhibit now have muslin sleeves to display them!

I've lost track of how many I sewed on. I went to lunch with about 18 inches left to sew today, and Kathy had finished it for me by the time I got back. And that was the last one!

It feels so good to have that part of the exhibit prep work DONE.

Next, I will be finishing up general quilt history research and writing specific object labels for the quilts and coverlets we will be including.

It's going to be a great show!

Wedding dress appointments

I had quite a few appointments yesterday for people to bring in their wedding gowns! I think a lot of people had yesterday off, so it was convenient for them.

We got an adorable short dress from 1969 in yesterday, as well as a very atypical 1980s dress that is elegant and refined.

And there are so many wonderful stories to tell this year! This show might be the best one we've ever done -- the dresses are gorgeous, the stories are heartwarming, and the floral theme will be much appreciated by the time April gets here!

If you want to come, tickets can be purchased now (even though the invitations haven't been printed yet). Call 330-455-7043 to make a reservation. The cost is $30 per person, and the show is on Saturday April 10.

Martin Luther King Day

We're OPEN today REGULAR HOURS from 9 AM to 4 PM.

So come see us!

Coming soon...a new patient in the Doctor's Office!

Thanks to the Medical Auxiliary, the little girl in the Doctor's Office is going to get a new head and hands!!

She will be traveling to Life Formations in Bowling Green, Ohio tomorrow for a serious makeover. Which clearly, she is in desperate need of!!!

A few years ago the Medical Auxiliary sponsored a new doctor for the Doctor's Office. It is finally his patient's turn!

We're not sure when she'll be back, but I will let you know when she arrives. We are very excited to make this much needed improvement to the Street of Shops!

Hopefully we will be able to move next door to the Dentist's Office and replace the dentist and his patient. If you know anyone who might be willing to sponsor that, please call our director, Joyce Yut at 330-455-7043!

Sewing....sewing....sewing.....

So it really does take two hours PER QUILT to sew muslin sleeves on the back by hand. I was hoping that I could stitch faster, but apparently I can't!

This exhibit is very intense on the prep work, but the installation should actually go quickly.

At last count we have seven more quilts to sew sleeves on. That isn't that bad.

I'm not going to think of it as FOURTEEN HOURS of work.........

What a productive week!

I am feeling much better at the end of this week than I was feeling at the beginning! Here are a few of the things that I got done:

• Hung and tagged all wedding dresses for Bridal Show that have been brought in to date
• Called all wedding dress owners to set up an appointment to bring dresses in
• Selected and measured 24 quilts and coverlets for the next exhibit
• Talked with the Army's Public Affairs Officer about the wreath laying ceremony
• Finalized details for McKinley Day luncheon and sent invitations
• Sent quilt exhibit postcard for priting
• Tweaked bridal fashion program for Tea with the Curator on Monday
• Purchased muslin to make sleeves to hang quilts and coverlets
• Spoke to the Catholic Men's Luncheon Club on "Little Chicago"
• Got my new intern started on the right foot by having her jump right in and work!

And now I am so very glad it is Friday night and I can rest a little!

Quilt exhibit update

I'm starting to make final selections for A Stitch in Time -- what a tough job! We have so many wonderful quilts and coverlets in our collection!

So far I've selected about half of the pieces that will be on exhibit. They include a red and white 1896 McKinley campaign quilt, a crazy quilt with a "McKinley for Governor" ribbon stitched into it, and a bright yellow and red rooster themed quilt that was made in 1979.

The hardest part is unfolding the quilts by myself in order to measure them for sleeves and hanging dowels. I'm glad my new intern started today, so she can help me out with that!

Here are a few of the quilts I got out of storage yesterday:

About magazine

I'm very excited that my next Tea with the Curator on Bridal Fashion on January 11 was covered in the January 2010 issue of About magazine!



This issue is on sale now. Pick it up and see what else is going on in Stark County!

Happy New Year!

As we launch into 2010, there are lots of great projects we're working on in the curatorial department!

First in the line-up is McKinley Day, which I am in charge of. All of the usual participants have been contacted. I sent my letters out before the holidays, so I'm still waiting to hear back from a few of them. All your favorite activities will be back again this year -- open hearth cooking samples, Meet the President talks, Civil War re-enactors, science shows and MORE!

Second is the quilt exhibit A Stitch in Time that opens in the Keller Gallery on February 26. We have so many beautiful quilts and coverlets -- the challenge is making final selections that will fit in the gallery. And some of the quilts have not been displayed before, so we will have to sew sleeves on the backs of them. The sleeves are made of unbleached muslin and allow us to hang the quilt on a rod on the gallery wall, or from the ceiling.

Third is of course the Bridal Show! Even though the show isn't until April 10, we've already started working on it. I will be contacting dress owners later this week to make appointments to bring in their dresses for the show. Next we will be scheduling times for the models to come in and try them on, to see what fits (we can't alter the dresses, so we have to find just the right person to wear each dress!).

So, as you can see, I will be busy, busy, busy for the next few months!