Quilt Of The Month
December, 2007 - Mariner's Compass
Mariner's Compass
Made by Mary Campbell Ghormley
Lincoln, Nebraska
Dated 1986
96" x 71"
IQSC 2007.031.0010
Nebraska Quilts and Quiltmakers Exhibition
Mary Campbell Ghormley's Mariner's Compass quilt was inspired by a quilt made in Pennsylvania in the 1830s that is housed at the American Museum in Bath, England. Mary and her husband Roger drafted a pattern and the various templates needed to make the quilt from the cover of an exhibition catalog. Mary devoted more than 360 hours to hand-quilting the final result.
Mary Ghormley has been involved in quiltmaking in Nebraska since the 1960s. She was an organizer of Folk Art/Fine Art, one of the first nationally attended quilt symposia held in Nebraska in 1977 and served as a member of the Nebraska quilt documentation project in the 1980s. Since the inception of the International Quilt Study Center in 1997, Mary has been a loyal weekly volunteer. Mariner's Compass is a new addition to the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, donated by the Mary and Roger Ghormley family.
