"Food for Thought"

Yesterday was such glorious weather, wasn't it?  It was good to be out in it.  My friend and colleague from my teaching days invited me to join her at the Fennimore House in Cooperstown for one of their "Food for Thought" programs, and I gladly accepted as their programs are always good.  Even if it had not been, the ride to Cooperstown was worth it!

But, as always, the lunchtime lecture was worth every minute.  Yesterday's topic was "Unfolding Stories: Culture and Tradition in American Quilts"  (great title!).  Jacqueline M Atkins* was the speaker, and I really liked the way she framed her talk.  She talked about quilts in relation to the cultural climate and the social climate of their times.

For example, early quilts in the exhibit have patterns with which we are familiar and use in our own "patchwork" quilts.  Such patterns, as we know, were often a result of what was happening in the country (Bear Paw, 54 - 40 or Fight, Clay's Choice, etc.) and were made by women who were actively involved in the running of the household.  In other words, they were lucky to have time to stitch on the quilt blocks by firelight at the end of a tiring day.  Those were primarily utilitarian quilts though no less beautiful. 

At the same time, narrative quilts were being made by women who had help in their homes.  Those quilts tell a story and reflected the world seen by more eduacted and affluent women.  Atkins also talked about Baltimore Album quilts - now those took time!  Those were quilts made by women who had help doing virtually all of the household chores, women who had the money to devote to the purchase of templates/patterns developed to show interests of the day.  She pointed out that people of that time (1820 - 1840) were very patriotic - hence all the flags and eagles. 

Atkins discussed patterns and their variations (1850's - 1870's).  Just think of all the star patterns and the numerous variations of the log cabin pattern (she showed slides of some wonderful Gee's Bend quilts - no quilt police there!).  Crazy quilts represented the "conspicuous consumption" of the late 1800's.  America was in an economic boom time, and more women lived in homes that had money to spare.  They decorated every surface and the decorations were embellished to the nth degree. 

There were other themes, like community (think autograph quilts), whole piece quilts (Hawaiian), but you get the picture.  Was it new?  No, but put in context of the exhibition, being able to look at the quilts made me understand those themes better.  It deepened my understanding.

Now remember, the discussion of quilts was limited to the ones in the exhibit which were chosen specifically because they were examples of the above themes.  Nothing was said about the advent of the sewing machine or aniline dyes or advances in communication.  Nothing was said about the advances made in the production of cotton cloth.  After all, there wasn't time to mention everything. 

But little things like the discussion of Hawaiian quilts with their whole piece motif being related to the art of Scherenschnitte (paper cutting - think of the snowflakes we all cut out as children) taught by missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands was new and eye-opening to me.  It gave me a new appreciation of facets of the art of quilting.  For that alone it would have been worth it.  But there was also the joy of looking closely at some remarkable examples of our quilting heritage.

The show is worth seeing, and if you have the time, there is a quilt show in Gilbertsville at the Major's Inn.

*"Dr. Jacqueline M. Atkins, a textile historian, is the Kate Fowler Merle-Smith Consulting Curator of Textiles for the Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA. She lectures and writes on American and Japanese textile and costume history, and her research on these textiles is an outgrowth of her work on the wartime textiles of Japan, Britain and the United States . . . " Quilt Study Group www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/sem11events.asp