Winter is almost here, and while some people are giddy at the prospect of sparkling slopes in the frosty air, others are looking to spend the next four months — or possibly four years — under the covers. The University of Vermont's Fleming Museum of Art explores that impulse with "Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts" and a smaller sister exhibition, "About Place: Quilts From Vermont Museums," both on view through December 6. The 18 quilts in "Handstitched Worlds" come from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York. "Handstitched Worlds" opens with "Map Quilt," made in 1886 by an unrecorded artist, possibly from Virginia. Quilting developed as a way to create something functional from scraps, and although other works in the exhibition showcase that tradition and its roots in thrift or poverty, this one is part of a different trend. It's a swath of sumptuous velvets, ribbons, brocades and silks. Seams are emphasized with embroidered designs; there's an even more lusciously decorated example of a "crazy quilt" across the hall in "About Place." According to the label, this version of the U.S. map can be traced to 1880s ladies' magazines, which published and popularized many quilt patterns. While the curators make a connection to the idea of manifest destiny, the artist seems to have embellished her design a bit at random: Texas gets its star, but Colorado sports a cobweb. She did presciently assign California blue, Florida red and Pennsylvania purple — as accurate as any modern pollster. This quilt is the only definitively cartographic one in the show. The curators have framed the collection not as works that literally include maps, nor even as regional samplings, but simply as a fantastic diversity of techniques and sensibilities that the viewer may not expect. "In Honor Shall Wave Spread," a 7-by-6-foot embroidery on cotton, looks like a runaway doodle from a history lecture. In simple linear red stitches on a white background, the artist draws zebras, potted plants, a rooster, a buffalo hunt, St. George slaying a dragon, Teddy Roosevelt, bunnies, a Union fifer and drummer trampling another soldier, and coal scuttles of the rich and the poor — probably taken from a political cartoon about the 1902 United Mine Workers' strike — among other designs. It's carefully sewn chaos. If this artist were alive today, she'd be making memes of kittens shooting rainbow…