BudgetTravel

Elizabeth Brimelow's Low Meadow (courtesy International Quilt Study Center, UNL)

For 10 years, the world's largest collection of quilts has been sitting in a storage room at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, with the quilts rarely unfolded for the public. The bulk of the 2,300 works were amassed and donated by Ardis and Robert James of Chappaqua, N.Y. "When we realized that we were spending almost every weekend showing people our collection, we decided we had to find a better home for the quilts," says Robert.

On March 30, the university will cut the ribbon on the International Quilt Study Center, a Robert A.M. Stern-designed museum with a façade of glass panels that appears stitched together. Among the treasures (from top): Elizabeth Brimelow's Low Meadow (2004), an 1880s blazing-star quilt, and Barbara Watler's Bioluminescence (2005). Museumgoers can draft designs in the computer gallery. 402/472-6549, quiltstudy.org, $5.