Museum shows vintage quilts for Quilting Day celebration

National Quilting Day offers a patchwork of activities Saturday if you want to learn about a traditional handicraft that’s currently undergoing a renaissance.

Inside historic houses on the 28-acre Hallockville Museum Farm’s grounds, you can watch quilting demonstrations, take a quilt-centered guided tour, view centuries-old coverlets and learn how to identify and care for handsewn heirlooms.

AN ENDURING CRAFT

National Quilting Day celebrates “the resurgence of . . . a traditional folk art form, by a new generation of craftspeople,” says Beth Motschenbacher, assistant director of Hallockville Museum Farm.

“The modern quilting movement involves people between 20 and 45 years old, who don’t necessarily have a lot of money but want to learn the techniques,” says Connie Klos of Patchogue, an Eastern Long Island Quilters Guild member who’ll be among the presenters.

You’ll also learn why quilting is trending worldwide in circles as far away as Japan and Australia.

“You lose yourself in it; it’s very calming and some folks have called it a new kind of yoga,” says Mary Kromhout of Calverton, a retired schoolteacher who will also be among the quilting experts on hand, about the craft.

Here are several ways to get the most out of the event:

TAKE THE TOUR Guided tours of the homestead, which dates to 1765, will place special emphasis on antique textiles and historic quilts from the 1800s, with one exhibit dating to 1826, Motschenbacher says. All the quilts were made on Long Island, mostly by local farm women, some of whom came to be known as the Sound Avenue Quilters. You’ll learn about “the rich tradition of quilting on Sound Avenue . . . [and] how it was used as a social outing throughout the late 1800s and 1900s,” Motschenbacher says.

WATCH THEM WORK Members and supporters of local quilting guilds will demonstrate the decorative art of Victorian crazy quilting, which incorporates various fabrics and embroidery. They’ll also show visitors English paper piecing, also known as “hexies” because it uses hexagon-shaped pieces of fabric, Klos says. It’s a hobby that’s big on camaraderie. “There are quilters guilds and quilt shops all over Long Island. It’s a pretty robust community,” says Klos.

LEARN TEXTILE CARE Kromhout’s “Look What I Found in the Attic” lecture will teach you how to identify, date and store valuable family heirlooms.

“I’m bringing quilts, scraps of quilts and other textiles that my friends and I have found in our grandmothers’ trunks,” says Kromhout, a member of an East End farming dynasty. The exhibits will include crazy quilts, redwork embroidery (often red thread on white fabric) and other types of hand quilting, applique quilts “and a few surprises,” she says.

Kromhout says the most valuable collectible quilts survive from the time of the two world wars. “You can still get them, and they are very reasonable in price,” she says. “They are real treasures that we hope will not go to the wayside.”

SHOP FOR CRAFTS Miss Ella’s Shop, located on the museum grounds, is an eclectic emporium with a changing inventory. Many items for sale are made by local artisans and craftspeople. On National Quilting Day, the shop will be stocked with quilting, knitting and other craft supplies.