The Virginia Quilt Museum
A place to get educated about history, art and memories
July 20, 2022
Originally, the Virginia Quilt Museum was going to be at Belgrove Plantation. But that national landmark didn’t work out.
“They started looking for a different home, and at that time Harrisonburg City owned the building (the Warren-Sipe House) and offered it to the Quilt Museum at something ridiculous like $5 per year at rent,” Alicia Thomas, executive director of the museum, said.
The building of the Virginia Quilt Museum — the Warren-Sipe House — was built around the time of the Civil War by the Warren Family, who also fought in it. Later the house was bought by another family who did a lot of renovations to the building — changing and making the fireplaces, the attic, and more.
Harrisonburg residents remember the Warren-Sipe house as a place where they would get to participate in clubs and activities.
Thomas said, “It [the Warren-Sipe house] served a lot of purposes for the city. It was the Parks and Rec department, so a lot of people who grew up here in Harrisonburg remember coming here for dances, cheerleading classesmor Boy Scouts.”
The Virginia Quilt Museum opens its doors to the public during events that Harrisonburg organizations host throughout the year.
“All of the downtown festivals in Harrisonburg we try to participate in, so we generally offer free admission on those days,” Thomas said. “And then we also try to do some type of activity. So the last one [festival] was Best Weekend Ever and we did a couple of kids crafts out on our porch. We had some coloring pages based off of an exhibit we had at the time.”
In addition, museum staff members travel all across Virginia to attend quilt shows so they can expand their quilt collection.
“That [collecting quilts at shows] helps us get more outreach into the quilting community,” Thomas said.
Outside professionals teach classes and workshops at the Virginia Quilt Museum. They offer sewing classes from beginner to expert levels. The teachers are often either board members or friends of board members.
“The quilting community is pretty interconnected,” said Thomas.
However, there are no classes for sewers younger than the age of eight.
“I’m hoping in the future, in the next couple of years, we can start offering more classes specifically geared toward younger quilters,” Thomas said.
