Late 19th century American 'crazy quilt', 159 x 135 cm, donated by Sherry Cook (TRC 2018.2407).Sherry Cook writes from America: My husband, Darwin, and I downsized from a large home in the fall of 2014 and have had a lot of boxes in storage since that time. We are now building a barn that will have small living quarters and storage space so I can get myself and the boxes organized. We also have our 60th wedding anniversary in September, so the decision has been made to downsize even more, to get everything organized, and at a faster pace.

We have been donating textiles to the Center for American History (CAH) in Austin, Texas since 2008. You can google the “CAH” or “Sherry A Cook, Quilter” to see some of the items we have donated. But we have now decided to support and encourage the TRC Leiden. We are very impressed with TRC’s leadership team, volunteers and all their efforts to work with world textiles.

I am so excited to have a facility of TRC’s caliber willing to accept my many textiles, especially quilts, that have been collected over the years. We have already mailed eight quilts and quilt tops and I am working on another large box this time. I will probably send twenty or so quilts in the next several months.

I am working on a different quilting project all the time as I enjoy the handwork tremendously. I love history, and quilts can bring a lot of history into our lives. My sewing experience dates back to age four! Both my grandmothers and my mother-in-law were avid needleworkers. I still have a small partial quilt top I made when I was nine years old. I have also collected a lot of textiles over the years besides having quilts from six generations in my family. I especially like to find a well-made quilt top or quilt blocks and finish them the way an original maker would have finished the item. I have an Amish family that have hand quilted my quilts for more than 40 years.

There is excitement here with your endeavour to create a Quilting Collection. My husband and I hope to visit the TRC Leiden by the end of the summer and possibly to bring even more quilts with me!

Sherry Cook, 30th June 2018