Tag Archives: Quilting

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.

Radio Round Up – January 22, 2010

Smiley ears!
Image by infowidget via Flickr

Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District

  • FREE – FREE  – FREE
  • Galleries and Shops open late
  • Friday, January 22, 2010, 5:30-9pm
  • Quilt Displays, quilts demos
  • All included in museum admission
Shepard Fairey Supply and Demand at the Warhol
  • Shepard Fairey is the guy who created the HOPE poster of Obama during the 2008 Presidential election.
  • The Warhol has a display of Shepards work from the past 20 years.
  • Exhibit closes at the end of January.
  • On January 19 – the skating rink turned 35!
  • Open for public skating every day
  • Sunday, January 24, 8pm
  • 1993 classic staring Bill Murray is back on the big screen at the Regent Sq
A Blog to Smile About

I am going to the Quilt Show to see the Pittsburgh Friendship Quilt

Well, here is an event I never thought I would think about attending but I am actually looking forward to this Quilt Show. While Quilt Shows aren’t one of my normal weekend hangouts, I am often looking for unusual events to check out. This is what caught my eye:

There will be a MUST-SEE SPECIAL DISPLAY of the Buhl Science Center’s PITTSBURGH FRIENDSHIP QUILT, that was in storage since 1989. The quilt is made of more than 32,000 squares signed by National and Local Political Figures, including 4 U.S. Presidents, Celebrities, Sports Teams, Schools, Community Groups & Buhl Visitors.

What is this Friendship Quilt? I have just spent the past hour googling every combination of Pittsburgh + Friendship + Quilt I can think of – I can’t find anything about this thing. But with 32,000 squares this is no little quilt. Since it has been in storage since 1989, before such things as blogs and flickr I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I can’t find anything. I even checked the deep archives of the Post-Gazette but that only goes back to the ancient time of 1990. I vaguely remember lots of little squares of fabric hanging on the wall of the Bulh Science Center during a field trip. I think I might have even signed one of those little squares.

Here is some more important info about the quilt:

Mr. Rogers and McFeely signed the quilt as did newscasters Bill and Patty Burns.

So I am planning to go check out this quilt show, hopefully they will let me take some pictures so that this quilt can have some proper representation on the web.

If you know anything about this quilt or might actually have a picture you could scan in – I think 1989 was before the household digital camera – I would love to include it here too.

The Quilt Company East – Art From The Heart Quilt Show
CCAC Boyce Campus, 595 Beatty Road, Monroeville 15146
$5 Admission
Friday, August 1, 2008 – 10am-5pm
Saturday, August 2, 2008 – 10am-5pm
Sunday, August 3, 2008 11am-5pm

For lots more info about Quilting in Pittsburgh – check out QuiltPittsburgh.org they have a list of local quilting guilds and quilting shops.

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