Tag Archives: Quilt

24 Gifts of Pittsburgh: Map of Pittsburgh Quilt Pattern

This is the ideal gift for a Pittsburgh quilter. I realize that this gift isn’t for everyone, but it is such a spectacular idea I decided it deserved a spot on the list. Meet the Pittsburgh Quilt Pattern from Haptic Lab. Haptic Lab calls this a kit, but it is really just the map of Pittsburgh for stitching, you will have to get all of the other stuff to make this a quilt, so I am calling it a pattern. (Apologies if I am not using the correct quilting terms here, please correct me in the comments below. )

I love quilts, probably because quilts were like the first analog blogs. Long before blogging came on the scene, some quilts were created to tell a story. Not only can a quilt tell a story, but they are a fairly functional item that can be used everyday. I’m pretty sure a quilt is more useful than a blog when it comes to providing comfort and warmth. I am a want-to-be quilter. I’ve never completed a quilt, but I  have purchased enough fabric from Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse to possibly make a quilt for everyone in my neighborhood. (By the way, Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse is THE BEST place to buy gift wrapping supplies around).

Photo of the Pittsburgh Friendship Quilt I took with my Blackberry Pearl in 2008.

Photo Credit: My Blackberry,circa 2008.

Also, one of my most favorite things I’ve visited in the name of documenting Pittsburgh was going to the Quilt Company East Quilt Show to see the Pittsburgh Friendship Quilt. If you went on a field trip to the Science Center in the late 80s you might remember signing your name to a 2.25″ x 2.25″ square of fabric. Fascinating story of how the Science Center lost the quilt – how you lose something this big is another story, but the Quilt Company East found the thing and restored it piece by piece. You can see more, not-so-great, taken with my Blackberry Pearl, photos of the Pittsburgh Friendship Quilt here.

Pittsburgh Quilt from Haptic Lab

Pittsburgh Quilt from Haptic Lab, lets assume this is a gold fabric.

If you are a knitter, then you have likely seen the website Purl Soho. It is a blog and store in New York that has some of the most beautiful and not so difficult patterns out there. If you aren’t a knitter, there are tons of knitting patterns out there, but not many that make things you might actually want to wear.

A knitting friend of mine discovered these city quilts on the Purl Soho website and has begun work on stitching her own version of the city. Because Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh and not Hollywood or Boston or Brooklyn, Haptic Lab only sells the Pittsburgh version as a kit and the photos of the Pittsburgh map don’t do it justice, so for the sake of showing you the potential of this quilt and pattern, here is what the Haptic Lab Paris Quilt looks like. (Pittsburgh is often considered the Paris of Appalachia, so at least there is some common thread).

Anyone interested in a quilting class and quilt-a-long to make the Pittsburgh quilt in 2016?

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Shop: DIY Pittsburgh Quilt can be ordered from Haptic Lab here for $38.00. This item can also be purchased from Purl Soho here.

Follow: @HapticLab on Twitter & Instagram. @Purlbee on Twitter & Instagram.

You can see all of the 24 Gifts of Pittsburgh here.

Quilting: An Antique form of Blogging and Quilters Weekend at the Heinz History Center

Get to the quilt show!

This weekend is the 3rd Annual Quilters Weekend at the Heinz History Center.  I have developed an interest in quilting and local quilt shows for a few reasons.  First – one of the most interesting events I attended because I wanted to blog about it was the Quilt show in July of 2008.   Keep reading to learn more about the Pittsburgh Friendship Quilt.  The program for the quilt show is one of the things that I keep on my desk. Continue reading

Mr. Rogers, Nancy Reagan and Jimmy Carter – Pictures of the Pittsburgh Quilt

Official White House photograph of Nancy Reaga...Image via WikipediaWhat do Mr. Rogers, Nancy Reagan and Jimmy Carter have in common? They all signed the Pittsburgh Quilt along with Ronald Reagan, Mr. McFeely and 30,000 other Pittsburghers back in 1988. (Never did I think I would have a reason to write about Nancy Reagan on IheartPGH).

Over the summer I wrote about the Pittsburgh Quilt which had been lost in the storage archives for the past 19 years. While I was writing about the quilt, which I had also forgotten about I couldn’t find one picture of it on the internet. So I headed out to the show to see for myself and to take some pictures so that it would have a home on the internet. The quilt was more impressive than I had imagined and I posted a few pictures from the Quilt Show here.

I have finally uploaded the rest of my pictures from the day to Flickr. Click here to see the pictures on Flickr or watch the slide show below.


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

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