Vermont Quilt Festival

Sticking with tradition and going against the grain both have their merits, particularly when it comes to quilts. The Vermont Quilt Festival, New England’s oldest and largest showing of its kind, honors purist takes on the folk art while spotlighting new techniques. Exhibits such as “Piecing Our Past: Quilt Styles of the 19th Century” and “Lobby Lights: Quilts of Joan Ford” pay homage to myriad styles. Viewers feast on scraps while browsing hundreds of patchwork projects, shopping in the merchants’ mall and taking notes at vendor demonstrations. Collectors can have antique quilts appraised, but don’t book those tickets to Disneyland quite yet — value is assessed not in dollars but in memories and meaning.