Cooper Hewitt Museum

Two friends and I took the train today into NYC again to see another fiber art exhibit. This one, Fashioning Felt" at the Cooper Hewitt Museum was phenomenal. Friends had been in to see it and gave it rave reviews. We had meant to see it when we went in a couple of weeks ago to see two other fiber art exhibits and ran out of time. The show closes tomorrow, Sept. 7 and we were urged to see it if we possibly could. Forget everything you thought you knew about felt. This show took it to a whole other level. There was a yurt constructed in the conservatory, where all the walls and ceiling of glass were covered with huge sheets of silk felted panels. So hard to describe, but so beautiful to see and touch. There were gorgeous clothing items, (two jackets I especially lusted after), furniture, rugs, sculptures and more.

No pictures were allowed inside because they had a lovely catalog to buy, but I have way too many art coffee table books. This is a shot of part of the beautiful garden outside. The building itself is a joy to see, being housed in the former mansion of Andrew Carnegie. It is now part of the Smithsonian Museum. Carolyn took this picture with my camera. Isn't she a great photographer?
We were planning on eating at the cafe in the museum since the website made it sound rather enticing, but it was not, so we elected to walk a couple of blocks and had a lovely lunch at a nice place on Madison Avenue. The weather was absolutley perfect, a quintessential September day. We were surprised at how many people there were walking around. I thought that folks would be out of town on Labor Day weekend, but perhaps there were many like us, that thought it was a grand day to be in the city.

I bought this pretty felt pin in the gift shop. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to wear this color and I put it right on the jacket I was wearing. It's four inches across so it makes quite a statement. Since the show closes tomorrow it was on sale, but I would have bought it anyway.