Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1978-1996

In a hurry? Save or print these Collection Connections as a single file.

Go directly to the collection, Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1978-1996, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

Quilts and Quiltmaking in America 1978-1996 is comprised of two smaller collections. The first contains sound recordings of interviews done in 1978, of six Appalachian women identified by researchers as traditional quiltmakers with photographs of their work. Discussing their past and the lives of their ancestors, these quilters provide information about quilting and American social history from as early as the late nineteenth century to the time of the interviews. The second portion of this collection documents American quilting in the late twentieth century through photographs of and notes about approximately 180 winning quilts from the Lands' End All-American Quilt Contest, held in 1992, 1994, and 1996.

1) Rural Life and an Agrarian, Pre-War, Local Economy

Interviews with six quilters from Appalachian North Carolina and Virginia together with photographs portray the rural life of this region and its agrarian, pre-World War II, local economy.

Strip quilt, jeans pocket detail.		Making her own quilts was just one of many ways a woman dealt with living in a time and place where resources and money were hard to come by. Students can get a sense of this lack and the self-sufficient lifestyle it necessitated by listening to quilters describe how they, their mothers, and grandmothers made quilts from old clothes, feed bags, sacks, and tiny scraps, to keep their families warm. Locate these recordings by searching on money, warm, scraps, and sacks.	Quilt back, feed sack logo.
"Experience teaches you better than anything."

Searches on storm window, heat, fireplace, washing machine, and treadle locate interviews that will help students understand the lack of modern-day amenities in the region's recent past and changes since that time. Searching on Christmas, hard, and farm, students will get a sense of how hard a rural lifestyle could be. Items found by searching on neighborhood, neighbor, and group reflect the role of community in this region, and can be supplemented by searching on quilting bee in American Life Histories, 1936-1940. After they sample a few of these items, have them answer the following questions:

Mrs. Choate and her canned and frozen foods.

• What kinds of chores are mentioned by these women?
• Are these chores that you or your family do today? How are they the same and different?
• Would you have liked living in this region in the first half of the 1900s? Why or why not?
• Was the experience of rural Americans changed by the Great Depression? Search on depression for evidence and analyze and interpret this evidence to answer the question.
• Was life different for African-Americans living in this region? Search on slave, and black people, and read the biographies in the special presentation, Blue Ridge Quilters, to see if you can answer this question.
• What other collections in American Memory could you use to answer these questions?

2) Toward a Modern Culture and Economy

1996 Connecticut State Winner; Memories of Dubrovnik #1

The collection provides first-hand evidence of the modernization of the American economy and culture throughout the twentieth century. Searching on craft, sell, cutaways, Sears Roebuck, and Mountain Mist locates interviews in which Blue Ridge quilters note the effects of an expanded economy and increased commercialization upon quilting. Students will also get a sense of the changes of modernization by comparing the work of the Lands' End quilters with that of the Blue Ridge quilters. Students can access photographs of the Blue Ridge quilters and their work in the Gallery of Photographs and find the interviews in the Sound Recordings. Information about the Lands' End contest and photographs of the winning quilts with accompanying notes can be found in the special presentation, The Lands' End All-American Quilt Contest.

"I like to use cotton fabrics."     "As long as you can coordinate your colors..." How did catalogs and magazines such as Sears Roebuck and Mountain Mist change quilting? What evidence can you find of an expanding economy and modern culture in the differences between the Blue Ridge quilters and the Lands' End quilters? What materials, designs, and techniques did each group of women use? What were their motivations for quilting? What were their influences? How were their quilts used? Were they sold? For how much money? How much variety of materials, designs, motivations, and styles was there among each group of quilters?

1992 Oregon State Winner; Twelve Sampler Block

3) The Quilting Revival

The Lands' End contests and their prize-winning quilts reflect a quilting revival that occurred in the late twentieth century. Learn about this revival by reading the special presentations, Blue Ridge Quiltmaking in the Late Twentieth Century, Speaking of Quilts: Voices from the Late Twentieth Century and The Lands' End All-American Quilt Contest, and by analyzing the photographs of the winning quilts and their accompanying notes, which are indexed by year at the bottom of this last presentation.

1994 Michigan State Winner; Bluebird of Happiness.

Browsing these photographs and notes and comparing them with the materials on the Blue Ridge quilters, students will see that the revival represented a widespread, national interest in quilting. The photographs and notes reveal a variety of techniques, styles, subject matter, motivations, and backgrounds. Searching on guild, class and lecture will locate numerous references to a national community of professional quilters. How else would you characterize the quilting revival as reflected by this material? How is the quilting of this revival different from that of the Blue Ridge quilters?

1994 New York State Winner; Variable Star/ Flying Circles.

4) Women

Portrait of Ila Patton

Nearly all of the quilters represented in this collection are women. In their explanations of why they quilt, they reveal much about women's lifestyles and how they have changed with time. Ask students to investigate this topic of why women quilted using the statements of motivations from the Subject Index. They can use the questions below to analyze the similarities and differences among these motivations and draw their own conclusions about women's lifestyles. "I never had time for fooling."     "I didn't think about them being that pretty."

I started this quilt when my son was sent to Iraq -- during deployment for the Gulf War. As events developed and grew more dangerous, I worked longer hours, added more hand quilting, made the stitches tinier and tinier . . . I gave it to him for a wedding present and told him how and when it came to be made (I think I would have gone mad had I not had my quilting to keep me straight). It has always been relaxing. This time it was my salvation. My son never knew at the time just how worried I was and it was a chance (my giving him the quilt) for us both to let go of those feelings.   -- 1992 Montana State Winner

1992 Montana State Winner; Desert Storm.

I quilt and teach quilting as my job. Contests make students aware of your work. I enter them often as advertisement of classes.   -- 1994 Illinois State Winner

1994 Illinois State Winner; Breaking the Ice

What are some of the reasons that these women quilted? What do these reasons suggest about what women value? What do they suggest about women's activities and roles in families and society? What do they suggest about women's personal lives, professional lives, creative lives, families, communities, modes of expression? How are the motivations of the Blue Ridge quilters and the Lands' End quilters different? How are they the same? What does this suggest about how women's lives and perceptions of women have changed with time? What do the quilts themselves suggest about these aspects of women's lives and how they have changed with time?

5) Quilting and the Emergence of an Art Form

One may appreciate the cultural significance of quilting and its evolution by comparing the work and statements of the Blue Ridge quilters with those of the Lands' End quilters. A good place to start is the special presentations. From there, students can sample the motivations listed in the Subject Index, to help them see the variety of functions quilting has played, such as creative expression, socialization, commemoration, income, charity, personal satisfaction, and warmth. Then, have them browse the images and statements by both groups of quilters and answer the questions below.

Eunice McAlexander, Lora King and Crystal Cruise quilting at frame.

• What motivations do the two groups of quilters share? What common functions do their quilts serve?
• What motivations and functions are unique to each group?
• What does this suggest about the change in how quilting has been done, why it has been done, and how it has been regarded?
• How have the quilts themselves changed with time? What do these changes suggest about changes in quilting and its reputation?
• What does the existence of national quilting contests suggest about quilting in the late twentieth century? Were there contests in the first half of the century? What were they like?
• What do the titles on the quilts suggest about changes in quilting?
• Do you see evidence of change within the time period of the Lands' End contests, from 1992 to 1996?

In answering these questions, students will find evidence of an increasing sense of quilting as an art form in the Lands' End quilters' statements and work. Examples may be found by browsing the Lands' End photographs and by searching on class, lecture, workshop, and art.

1996 Alaska State Winner; Arctic Lava.

Has being a winner in the Land's End contest made a difference in your life? Has it changed the way you look at your work as a quilt maker? "The development of my resume of quilt shows and contests has led to acceptance for 2 solo quilt shows and development of myself as a serious quilt artist."   -- 1996 Alaska State Winner; Arctic Lava

1994 Massachusetts State Winner; Sconset Girls.

1992 Texas State Winner; Crooked Lane.

• Did the Blue Ridge quilters consider their quilting to be an art form? What about their mothers and grandmothers?
• Does someone need to consider their work to be an art form for it to actually be one?
• What is the difference between art and craft?
• What makes something an art form? The motives of the creator? The audience of the work? The price of the work? The professional reputation of the creator? The community in which the creator works? National or wide-spread recognition of an art form? The subject, style, or technique of the art work?