I am a huge fan of Ken Burns and his documentaries and Ken Burns is a huge fan of quilts! Ken Burns who has produced and directed over forty films about different aspects of American history owns over 100 quilts that he has personally selected and considers them his friends.
I have a history minor and have favored history books, history classes and historical fiction. Museums, historical preservation sites and presidential library make up a good vacation. I once convinced my school supertindent that a three credit course on the “Rise of the Nazi party in 1930’s” would be an appropriate recertification course when renewing my teaching certificate in Family and Consumer Science! But I believe I have learned more about my country and the events and people which formed it from Ken Burn’s documentaries than all the above. I explicitly trust he is showing the good, bad and ugly parts of our country.
From his latest, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, I realized for the first time how the Revolution was as much a civil war as it was a revolution. From my perspective of 200 years after the fact, I had assumed almost everyone in the colonies were for the rebels or as we call them patriots. Many good people wanted to remain a colony–with privileges. I also became much more aware of the role of Native Americans in this conflict.
Burns fleshed out Benjamin Franklin, his genius and his ego; how he became one of the founding fathers and how he failed many times as a father to his family.
I listened to the sound track to THE CIVIL WAR over and over. My son had just left for Navel Academy and I needed the words and music of other mothers who had sent their sons off to serve in the military. ASHOKAN FAREWELL does something to my soul every time I hear it.
THE VIETNAM WAR was part of my history marginally. I do not claim even a part of this tragedy as many can. But when you are living through something as monumental as the Vietnam War and you are a child, teen and young adult, the level of understanding is very incomplete. The documentary was a powerful reminder just because I lived through something, that I know and understand very little of the big very complex issues.
Ken Burns started collecting quilts as something for himself not the public as are his films. He sees quilts as the “cleanest, most authentic expression of who we are as American people.” He explained that his documentaries were usually focused on well known persons, usually men. Quilts represent the ” myriad of people I’d never heard of when I began the project 10 years ago. And I would wager that most people had never heard of them before—teenagers and Native people and free and enslaved Blacks, and also women, who represent half the population.”
And he is meticulously careful with the facts, spending years searching for the facts. But with quilts he honors the unknown. He does not stress about knowing the exact date or location or the creator of the quilts. I enjoyed knowing we share the same musings–was she old or young, married or single? Was this quilt for a hope chest or something to make while her husband/son/brother was away fighting
Burns knows the names of the common blocks which often reflect the mood of the country but he doesn’t judge them by their workmanship. He calls his quilts his friends. For years only persons close to Burns, who had visited his home, knew of his collection. In 2018 he share 26 of quilts with the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, and since then has had exhibits in other museums, mainly in the northeast states.
He is partial to red, white and blue quilts but has a very eclectic collection. He has quilts from the 18th century to the 20th. Some quilts celebrate an important event or movement and some represent diverse groups of Americans.
It is a good feeling to learn someone you admire very much also shares a passion of yours. Burns says it much more eloquently than I can.
“Quilts are just a beautiful thing, like a sunset or a sugar maple ablaze with red and orange—one of those things where you just sort of shake your head and realize how insignificant we are in the face of creation. Quilts remind us of something bigger than ourselves.“
(All of the Ken Burns quotes are from Country Living, June 28, 2026. Also check out https://www.internationalquiltmuseum.org/exhibition/uncovered-ken-burns-collection
Nebraska Public Mediahttps://nebraskapublicmedia.org · Apr 19, 2018. )
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Many of us have been on vacation–the UK, Ireland and the Pacific Northwest. There have been family birthday parties, health issues etc. I had a great 6 days with my family packed full –so not a lot of sewing has been! Shirley did bring in this beauty.
This quilted celebration of nature is soft and calming. It is 50″ x 57″, machine quilted and hand bound. The backing is from the same line of fabric prints. You could start your own quilt collection with this beauty, or add to your collection. Contact me if you are interested.
I have a favor to ask of you–Please share with your friends that don’t read this blog about the Quilt Etc. Sale in October. Let them know it is much more than just quilts but that everything is handcrafted and is from fiber.
Quilts Etc. Sale. Oct 15-17, First United Methodist Church, Wichita KS
Quilts, Etc. 