I don’t really know how to introduce this because it’s just so insane. So I’m just going to spit it out: Last month, I had lunch with and spent the afternoon in a back room of a museum studying early 19th century quilts with Barbara Brackman and Merikay Waldvogel. Just the three of us.

Here’s proof:

Yes. That Barbara and that Merikay.

Their current joint research project is chintz panel quilts, of which there are several fabulous examples at the Atlanta History Center Museum. What an honor it was to be any part of that with them.

You can read about the Atlanta History Center chintz quilts in a series of posts Barbara’s doing on her Material Culture blog, starting with this one. And you can read more about the chintz panel quilt project here.

I defied death to take photos from the top of a very tall ladder. It was more than worth it.

~Tara