The Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University has been one of our Throwback
Thursday sponsors for years. One of the great things about the museum is that it’s always
working on curating new exhibits or updating its current galleries. In September, the Stitches
in Time exhibit officially opened. This week, we take a closer look at this exhibit and learn more
about quilting in Kentucky.

The museum has been home to many historic quilts for years, but the
ones on display now are a little bit different than the others you may have seen the
last time you visited the Kentucky Museum. The new exhibit is the result of a three-year project
headed by Luce Term Assistant Curator of Folk Art, Jackson Medel. The project was funded by the
Henry Luce Foundation out of New York City, whose mission is to deepen knowledge and
understanding in the pursuit of a more democratic world, by nurturing knowledge communities
and institutions and fostering dialogues.

The Stitches in Time exhibit features 30 of the Kentucky Museum’s over 330 quilts, each with its
own historic and cultural significance, covering over 300 years. Museum visitors are able to see
a quilt created by George Washington’s niece-in-law; a 66-thousand piece quilt created by a
New Zealand immigrant in the 1930s; a quilt with a Henry Clay portrait,
showcasing this famous national statesman and Kentuckian; another with a portrait of Father
Thomas Merton, well-known poet and essayist, who resided in the Abbey of Our Lady of
Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery in Bardstown; and quilts created with the help of Florence
Peto, a prominent figure in the 20th century quilt revival and 1980 Quilters Hall of Fame inductee.

Kentucky has a rich quilting heritage, and we would be remiss not to mention the National Quilt
Museum in Paducah, which hosts annual events that bring quilters from around the
globe to Kentucky.

The Stitches in Time exhibit is on display through July 2025.