A Fenway Hit at the New England Quilt Museum
W hen you’ve got baseball lovers and art lovers in the family, where can you go for a Leaving Lexington event to satisfy both passions? Try the New England Quilt Museum at 18 Shattuck Street in Lowell, Massachusetts, before the current exhibit ends on July 8th.
Here, Red Sox fanatics who are also quilt artists have skillfully combined their passions to create an exhibit titled “Fenway Park Centennial.” As Fenway Park celebrates its 100th season of games played before the Green Monster, this show features fabric depictions of the park, the players, and baseball history. New England Quilt Museum Board Member Maureen Sullivan says, “These are not your Grandma’s quilts.”
These art quilts recount World Series triumphs, bemoan the “Curse of the Bambino,” and capture the heart of the Red Sox nation. A totally un-researched observation asserts that you’ll never see so many signed autographs of baseball players in one place as in this show. Rosemary Bawn, a nationally recognized quilt artist of long standing and Red Sox-lover since her teenage years, has contributed most of the quilts, though other quilters also add to the colorful tributes to America’s pastime. Rosemary and Vivien Lee Sayre, a certified quilt appraiser for the American Quilter’s Society, co-curated this exhibit, having both lectured on quilts all over New England and collected loans for the Fenway exhibit.
Living in Watertown, Rosemary became a lifelong Red Sox fan in 1967, the year of the “Impossible Dream,” attending games in Fenway with high school girl friends who dubbed themselves ‘Martin’s Marauders.’ Radio announcer Ned Martin always acknowledged their many banners displayed in the bleachers. After attending the New England School of Art in Boston, getting married, and having two children, Rosemary made her first Red Sox quilt in 1992, naming it “I remember the $1.00 Bleachers,’ based on her youthful passion. This quilt in the exhibit displays a list of her favorite players: Dick Ellsworth, Bob Bolin, Cal Koonce, Bill Lee, and Danny Carter for whose children she had babysat in the past. She wrote them, along with other favorites Ed Phillips and Dick Pole, asking for autographs on fabric squares and later on the quilt itself. Other players signed “at baseball card shows, the 1999 All-Star Fanfest, and Fenway’s autograph alley,” which resulted in the quilt now bearing 65 major league baseball players’ autographs.
Jean and Tom Yawkey are remembered for their six decades of team ownership (from 1934 to 1992) in the “Days of Glory on A Field of Dreams” quilt made by Rosemary in 1996. This quilt was a finalist in the All-American Quilt contest sponsored that year by “Land’s End” and “Good Housekeeping.”
Other quilts feature individual players. Rosemary explains her “Papelbon Brothers” quilt by recounting, “After I made a commissioned quilt of the three Papelbon brothers for their Mom, Sheila, in the winter of 2006 I started my own Papelbon quilt.” She was working on it when the Sox won the World Championship in 2007 and Jonathan did a victory jig that she had to add to her quilt. The three bothers later autographed her work. Her wall hanging tribute to Nomar Garciaparra, titled “Nomah!” was made for the a Celebrity Mini Quilt auction held at the New England Quilt Museum’s 2002 Images Quilt Show. A tribute to Satchel Paige was designed by Ed Larson of Libertyville, Kansas, and quilted by Yvonne Porcella of California in tribute to the 1971 Baseball Hall of Famer, considered “one of the most colorful and best pitchers” in the sport.
Ask for a scavenger hunt sheet for young baseball fans who will have fun seeking names and objects on the 25 quilts and many pennants in the exhibit. Adult input might be needed.
Lexingtonians may recognize former resident Barbara Crane’s name. Herself a quilter and member of Quilters Connection, Barbara offered her friend Rosemary a poem about attending early season home-games in cold weather. The “April Snow” quilt includes the poem and depicts a snowman in Sox gear and “frozen fans.” A line from Barbara’s poem asks, “Which runner slides the best on sheets of sleet?”
Lexington’s 300th Anniversary year runs concurrently with Fenway Park celebrating its Centennial and the New England Quilt Museum celebrating its 25th Anniversary. We have a triple header: town history, the art of quilting, and Fenway lore. Go Sox!
Judy Buswick is the author of a book on quilting. Visit her Web site at www.judybuswick.com for more information.