Colorado's quilt museum showcases intricately sewn masterpieces

Visitors walk through the galleries, closely admiring the colors, textures and intricate designs on display. Masterpieces depicting the beauty of nature, abstract shapes and the power of women’s right to vote — all evoking emotions and provoking thought.

But at least one of the creators of these artworks doesn’t see herself as an artist at all.

“I don't sell my work. I'm not a professional. I'm just an ordinary quilter,” said Joan Duncan, who started sewing at 10 years old and is now exhibiting her quilt collection for the first time at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden.

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“It gives me great pride and joy. To see all my things together, hanging at the same time, is really something,” she said, especially after years as a member of the museum.

Duncan has found community, friendship and learning opportunities through the workshops, exhibits, talks, historic quilt collection and extensive library shared with members. All of it is housed in an unassuming shopping center off of Colfax Avenue.

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Duncan said she started quilting in 1972, when she used her grandma’s scrap bag of polyester double knit fabrics to sew together a bed covering her family used for many years.

“I've been quilting quite a bit ever since,” she said.

As visitors to the museum will be able to see on display until Oct. 19. Her exhibit offers quilts of all sizes, styles, color schemes and designs.

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“I try everything. I like everything, and I'm willing to do all kinds of quilts,” she said.

But nearly all show off what she calls her superpower.

“I think everybody has some superpower,” she said. “And mine happens to be applique.”

Applique is a sewing technique that stitches designs cut from fabric onto other layers of fabric. Duncan uses it to create intricate patterns like flowers, birds and even dinosaurs on a child-size quilt.

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Some of her quilts reflect on life in Colorado, like her piece titled “Aspen Afterglow,” which depicts an aspen forest during wildfires.

One of her large-scale appliqued quilts took her about three years to sew by hand. Others, she has sewn by machine. All are thoughtfully crafted to meticulously combine fabrics and patterns with elaborate stitching.

Duncan is most inspired by traditional quilt patterns.

“When people start quilting, they're not as aware of the history,” she said. But the historic books and quilts preserved and studied at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum provide a look back.

“Quilting has evolved. It did begin as basically a way for people to keep warm, you know, as bed coverings and whatnot,” said Karen Roxburgh, the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum’s executive director.

“The quilts that are being made today are more art form,” she said. “We've got some amazing works of art that most people walk into our galleries and they're like, ‘oh my gosh, this is a quilt?’”

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Still, she said, studying historic quilts shows there has always been an element of art and self-expression behind the craft.

Some of the oldest quilts in the museum’s collection date back to the mid-1800s. A time when westward expansion meant women traveling to Colorado with their quilts.

Roxburgh showed Denver7 an appliqued rose wreath quilt with stuffing puffing up the flowers and dense stipple quilting to amplify its textures. It was likely sewn on a Tennessee slave plantation in the 1850s.

Another quilt, sewn in the 1840s by Mary Knapp Beals, features repeating blocks of geometric shapes in varying colors, some of them bearing signatures and the years 1845 and 1847.

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At almost 200 years old, these quilts, entirely sewn by hand, are still inspiring the next generations of quilt artists.

“This museum came to be through a little old lady,” Roxburgh said. Eugenia Mitchell was in her 80s when she teamed up with friends to start the museum. “It took them eight years to raise the funds."

The museum started in a one-room building in 1990 and has been scaling up ever since.

Soon the museum will be raising money to expand again. They currently own two units within their building, and now they have the opportunity to buy a third. That would allow the museum more space for their collection of more than 800 quilts and 7,500 books.

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But even with all of that growth, Roxburgh is the only employee. All other staff are passionate volunteers. And the museum relies on its visitors, members and students to keep it running.

Roxburgh said the museum uses its collection to educate people of all ages, including young people, through their Kids Kamp .

“I've never met a quilter who wasn't inclusive and welcoming,” said Duncan, whose home-crafted quilts for personal use are finally on exhibit for others to admire and draw inspiration from.

“It’s wonderful. I'm very happy to pass the torch on to younger people,” she said.

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