Mattatuck Museum

Offering Textiles Tour

WATERBURY — The current exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum Arts & History Center, “Cover Stories: Quilts and Bed Coverings from Regional Collections,” includes more than 30 quilts, bed coverings and other needlework, most of which has not been on display before. It is on view until March 23.

The chronology of the exhibit follows the lives of colonial families, the development of textile production, sewing machine manufacturing, and needle and button making. Included among the quilts is one made by students of Miss Sarah Pierce’s Female Academy in Litchfield, a crazy quilt fashioned from scrap fabrics of velvet, satin and silk leftover from a Danbury hat factory and a quilt made by a Waterbury native that features a backing made of a plain white cloth that was spun and woven by the quilter’s mother.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a bus tour that visits Connecticut’s historic textile mills is set for Saturday, February 23, from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm.

The tour will take participants out of Waterbury and around the state to visit historic sites with Mattatuck Museum education and program director Jerry Sawyer and quilt historian Sue Reich.

The tour goes first to the Cheney Homestead, Manchester, home to Seth and John Cheney, who established the world-famous Connecticut silk industry. Next stop is the Windham Mill & Textile Museum, Willimantic, where participants will learn about the people who worked and built mill communities in late 19th Century Connecticut.

The group will take a break at Willimantic’s Main Street Café, a living landmark restaurant, followed by time to visit Main Street shops. The tour will then continue to historic mill sites in Danielson and Killingly, and the Ashford studio of the award-winning quilter and teacher Pat Ferguson.

Coit is $85 for museum members and $90 for nonmembers, and reservations are required. For information, call 203-753-0381, extension 10, or visit MattatuckMuseum.org.