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Blue Mill by Pat Sloan for Benartex
Pat Sloan and Benartex are honored to partner with the Virginia Quilt Museum to celebrate their 30th anniversary with this beautiful Blue Mill collection. Located in Dayton Virginia in the Historic 1822 Silver Lake Mill, the museum is devoted to preserving the quilts and stories of Virginia Quilt makers. Looking at the antique quilts in the collection, the stunning Pine Burr by Melinda Jane Still Flint (1833-1919) really stood out for her amazing use of color. All the fabric designs in Blue Mill are inspired by motifs found in the antique prints used by Melinda to create her quilt. The museum is grateful for the documentation that Melinda’s great-great granddaughter Allene Blessing, of Harrisonburg PA, could provide when she donated the quilt. Melinda was a farmer’s wife, her husband Ezekiel Flint died young during the civil war and left her a widow with 3 small children. The family knows she was a quilter and a seamstress with a special enjoyment of smoking a pipe. We love being able to highlight not only the Virginia Quilt Museum with this collection, but a quiltmaker from the past. The love of making quilts has a long and wonderful history that we each keep going with every stitch we sew. Special thanks go out to Pat Sloan for collaborating with the museum and Benartex to develop this beautiful fabric line. Please visit the museum at https://www.vaquiltmuseum.org/, sign up for their newsletter and become a member to keep the history of quilting alive.
