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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Home Design -> Quilts
 SOFT
QUILTS, STRONG STORIES
By Dianne Zuckerman
From pioneer women’s patchwork legacies to the AIDS Memorial Quilt,
unfurled over grassy acres like an endless field of flowers, soft quilts tell
strong stories.
The simplest of quilts, handed down over time and faded from years of use,
might have warmed a Western settler’s bed or kept cold winds from seeping
through cracks in a cabin wall. More elaborate patterns speak of a longing for
beauty and artistic expression or tout causes such as patriotic celebrations and
civil rights.
Quilts have covered every aspect of daily life, from welcoming newborns to
shrouding the old and dying. Often passed down from one generation to the next,
quilts can serve as a kind of fabric family album, a memory bank of individuals
and events that shaped people’s lives and histories. To a large extent, those
histories are American.
Patchwork Uniquely American
"Quilting itself isn’t strictly American," says Alisa S. Zahller,
assistant curator of decorative and fine arts at the Colorado History Museum. "Women who came to America brought with them certain
traditions - there are garments that were quilted in medieval times. But
patchwork quilts and piecework quilts really are uniquely an American
style."
Quilting was part of the fabric of American life as far back as Colonial
days. But patchwork quilts particularly recall hardy 19th century pioneer women
who recycled worn textiles into creative designs to compensate for a paucity of
new bolts of cloth.
For emigrant families who had endured the harsh journey across open prairie
in a rough wagon, living in a cabin, no matter how simple, must have been a
welcome alternative. This sense of home and hearth is at the heart of the Log
Cabin quilt, which incorporates a central "chimney" block surrounded
by vari-colored strips or "logs."
Western Sentiments
 The
Colorado History Museum's collection, which features striking traditional and contemporary
quilts crafted by Colorado residents, includes a Log Cabin quilt made in 1885.
Warm and earthy, with overlapping light and dark sections, the coverlet has a
solid, orderly feel. It was made by 17-year-old Nellie Jean Nichols, who may
have been anticipating her future marriage and the opportunity to establish her
own home fires.
Another type of quilt that became popular about the same time, during a
period of sentimentality and separation as people headed West, was friendship
or album quilts. One variation on this was the autograph quilt, inspired by the
era’s popular leather-bound inscription books. While autograph quilts usually
involved stitching together fabric sections featuring signatures of family and
friends, a 19th century woman named Emma Schoefield Wright took a somewhat
different approach.
Her 1880 autograph
quilt includes
pieced geometric blocks signed by notables of the period. Wright, an established
painter, created graceful illustrations of flowers and waterfalls to set off the
signatures of Ulysses S. Grant, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other
luminaries. In addition to being a kind of "Who’s Who" of the time, the caliber
of the signatures also says something about the status of Wright and her father,
an early president of the Burlington Northern Railroad.
While Emma’s father helped her collect autographs, quilts more often
represented a collaboration between daughters and their mothers or grandmothers.
In the 19th century, girls usually began learning to quilt by about age 8. After
extensive practice, they were ready to embark upon their own doll-sized efforts.
 Quilts Continue to Tell Stories
In today’s more hectic world, multi-generational sharing of quilt-making
techniques isn’t as taken for granted. Many contemporary quilters still learn the art from family members. Faye
Anderson’s "My Mother Taught Me to Sew" pays tribute to this
relationship. The navy, pink
and rose quilt mixes appliquéd blocks and 50 different designs to create a work
that very much conveys Anderson’s stated desire for her quilts "to speak
for me, showing my love of color, design and craftsmanship."
According to Zahller, there were instances during earlier times where men in
different communities had certain sewing or needlework skills. "But for the
most part," she notes, "it was primarily a woman’s role or
craft."
No longer. Since the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial celebration, which helped spark a
rebirth of interest in quilting, men increasingly have been mastering the
activity. A good example is "Three Way" by Bruce
Wilcox. Three free-form sections, suspended from a wooden bar and stitched
together with heavy black cord, are dominated by triangular forms. The unusual
combination of experimental contours and precise geometric patterns are a
fitting representation from a man who lists design and mathematics among his
chief interests.
Perhaps some of the male quilters of the future will emerge from Kathy Emmel’s
fifth-grade classes at Weber Elementary School in Arvada. Emmel, who has been
teaching students to quilt for 14 years, combines science lessons and art
education with an annual quilting project done during regular school hours.
"It’s a Pond’s Life," one of the brightest works was completed during the 1998-99 school term. Bursting with colorful animal and
insect figures, the design is based on a class trip to a nearby pond. Made with
the assistance of donated computerized sewing equipment, the wonderfully
detailed piece honors the natural world and its place in the class curriculum.
The quilt also says volumes about what the experience meant to the students, as
can be seen from their smiling faces, incorporated through photo-transfer
technique into the droll pattern of insect bodies that borders the design.
 A
Study in Frugality
While today’s quilting students have the luxury of high-tech equipment and
fanciful fabrics, yesterday’s quilters made do with far less. "Tobacco
Flag Quilt," made in 1917 by Carrie Shirley, is one example of how imaginative craftspeople utilized everyday
objects.
The piece contains 120 international cotton flannel flags given as premiums
in cigarette packages. In addition to demonstrating its creator’s make-do
spirit, the quilt also is a reminder of how flags from several of the countries
have changed since the early 20th century.
Political events near and far have long been represented in quilts. Examples include designs that honor women’s contributions to
Colorado history and "Bondage," Julia A. Payne’s moving,
double-sided quilt, with its images of an African-American slave ship and a
silhouetted figure lynched from a tree.
For many of the exhibitors, their needlework speaks of family members and
their role in the quilter’s world. In the 1930s, Mary Stephenson Stanley
created the cleverly titled "Clydescope," named for the work’s
colorful kaleidoscopic pattern and Mary’s son, Clyde. Sixty years later, Pat
Hubbard created "Heaven’s Eternal Campfire," a blend of celestial
fantasy and ranch-life reality, to honor her father’s memory.
 A Social Gathering
While there are numerous examples of stunning quilts made to recognize
individuals, perhaps the overriding theme in quilting is the role it has always
played in bringing together members of a community. In the 19th century,
quilting was one of the few social pastimes available to women, particularly
those who lived in sparsely-settled Western towns.
As the women gathered to sew and socialize, their needlework creations often
evolved into charitable works, sold to raise money for a church, hospital or
other community institution. In addition to displaying the group’s creative
flair, quilting bees also became synonymous with women coming together for
support and shared experiences as well as creative expression.
Today, many quilting groups take advantage of labor saving devices such as
sewing machines. But some still create works as completely hand-made as
possible. One such group is the Mountain Mavericks Quilt Guild of Morrison,
whose "Zillions of Diamonds" is one of the loveliest.
Hand-dyed, hand-pieced and hand-quilted, the pastel-shaded quilt, which is
centered around a turquoise eight-point star, includes more than 3,000 pieces.
On a larger scale, the Colorado Japanese American Women’s Quilt Project
presents the experiences of women of Japanese ancestry living in the United
States, particularly Colorado. Created in 1995, the panels of patchwork squares
integrate scenes and symbols of both Japan and Colorado.
A pair of traditional, good-fortune cranes, gold wings bending gracefully
against a flowered backdrop, are mounted only a glimpse away from darker
remembrances such as a group of Japanese people being forcibly moved to the
Amache Relocation Center in Granada, Colo. during World War II.
Such images embody both the best hopes and worst events in people’s lives.
Together, they sum up much of what quilting has come to represent. For the
maker, it’s a way of giving voice to life’s important moments. For later
viewers, it’s a way to identify with those who went before.
For curator Zahller, exhibits are an
opportunity to link individuals and eras. "The thing I hope people consider
is that it makes them reminisce, makes them think about objects in a
new way, helps them learn about Colorado’s history and different places. I
hope it’s a personal connection that they’re able to make with the artifacts
and the stories."
Helpfulwebsites: http://www.coloradohistory.org/hist_sites/CHM/Colorado_History_Museum.htm
www.denverartmuseum.org, a good
collection of 19th and early 20th century Colorado quilts
www.rmqm.org, the Rocky Mountain Quilt
Museum in Golden, quilt collection and information about caring for antique
quilts on their site.
www.artquilters.org, the Front Range
Quilters, a group of contemporary quilters.
See our story on contemporary quilter Patty
Hawkins.
For more information about the history of quilts and their makers, try
"The American Quilt" by Roderick Kiracofe and Mary Elizabeth Johnson
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