January will be an opportunity to see some of Karen Alexander’s antique and vintage quilts. Alexander is exhibiting a selection of them in Lopez Library. The quilts will be on view until Jan. 28.

A resident on Lopez, Alexander has been passionate about quilts for many years. She became interested in them through two stints of living abroad in her teen-age years. Her educator parents took her to visit craftsman in some 20 countries before the age of 21.

Her volunteer work in the quilt history world is based on previous work experience in conference planning and direct mail marketing.

In 2003 Alexander was invited to be co-chair of the Grand Opening of The Quilters Hall of Fame and associated exhibits which opened in 2004 in the restored Marie Webster House in Marion, Ind., a National Historic Landmark.

Alexander continued to plan and organize the Honoree exhibits for TQHF through 2008 and served as president 2005-2008. In 2006 she was invited to join the Quilt Index’s Signature Quilt Pilot Project Team.

The Quilt Index is run in partnership by the Alliance for American Quilts, Michigan State University Museum and MATRIX – The Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences at MSU. In 2009 Karen was invited to become one of four advisors to the newly launched Oregon Quilt Project.

She presently serves on the board of Lopez Island Historical Society and continues to write, blog and present lectures and workshops on quilt history.

Alexander is currently encouraging all residents of Lopez to sign the 2010 Lopez Island Signature Quilt. This quilt will be a record of all who lived and worked on the island in 2010. Alexander feels a signature quilt is a successful way to capture a moment of history and is displaying an example of one, a 1941-42 navy fundraising quilt, in the library. “I wanted to give islanders an idea of how important signature quilts can be for community history.”