As we were staying only a couple of miles away we visited The American Museum (near Bath) last week. I didn't know until just before we went that it houses a very large collection of antique quilts. The main collection is in the house but, sadly, not displayed in a manner that makes them easy to see. They are back to back in huge framed glass panels but are in a rotary thing like you get in tile showrooms i.e. like the pages of a book. That means only a couple of people can really look at a time because if someone opens one bit another bit closes. Fortunately it wasn't very busy and I did manage to see a some of them. Because of their age the lighting is very, very low - is there not a non damaging type of light that can be used? a couple of rooms in the museum were actually dark and the guide had a torch to show you things.
As it happened there is currently a special exhibition - Kaffe Fasset Quilts in America in a separate building and as we were too early for the main house we spent some time in there. Some of the antique quilts from the collection were displayed alongside Kaffe's modern interpretation. TBH I didn't really like many of KF's versions, I find his fabrics too gaudy and samey, but some of the antique quilts were fabulous and the work that had gone into them was astounding. It was very frustrating not to be able to see the backs, even the guide wasn't allowed to touch them with his white gloves but there were some tiny photos next to some of them. One huge quilt had a log cabin pieced back that you could just see a tiny bit of if you peered round the back - the individual blocks were only about 4".
This was my favourite, a tumbling block star. I think it was made in 1862(ish) and is at least 8' square.
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I liked this log cabin one
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and this one
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