Feminist Activism and Quilting

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Feminist Activism and Quilting

• Matching the activism to the quilts

2
Education

• Samplers
• Girls were sent home to sew and cook and quilt as
  they were not able to keep up with the
  complexities of schoolwork.

3
Labor

• Amish traditions deny personal vanity, but pride
  of labor is encouraged. Beautiful quilts in a
  stark environment are an honest testament to the
  labor of women.

4
Politics

• Quilts of red bandanas (symbol of a working man)
  and silk political ribbons were used in the
  campaigns of late 1880-1900 to encourage the
  working man to swing his vote

• Cardboard thread boxes were given as political
  souvenirs by Andrew Jackson and he had material
  milled with a campaign slogan and blue and white
  chintz used later in his inauguration

5
Abolition

• Birds in the air provided arrows for direction
• Flying Geese could be pieced to create a map
• Log Cabins with a black center designated a safe
  house

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Temperance

• Drunkards path
• T block

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Gifting

• A Lone Star completed by a single woman meant she
  would be a spinster
• Album quilts were goodbye gifts
• Wedding ring quilts were wedding gifts

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14th Ward Relief Society

• Quilted for fees to donate the money for Indian
  relief funds
• Also donated quilts to the needy
• Womens service auxiliary from Church of Latter
  Day Saints

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Friendship or album quilts

• Signing the name was practiced in samplers so not
  a new idea
• Chimney Sweep was a common block for album quilts
  as families headed west

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African American Quilts

• An old quilt as batting for the new to encase the
  work and lives of the last generation into the
  new.

• Tying of quilts may have come from the Bakongo
  people of West Africa which was used to create
  ritual objects used to empower and protect.

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African American Quilts
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Native American Quilting

• Pictorial quilts are used to tell of an important
  event or rite of passage.
• Quilts are used to cover the coffin just before
  it is lowered to designate the caretaking of the
  family left here.

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Northern American Natives

• Among the Inuit, strips of fabric are given to
  community members during seal parties and then
  used to create gift quilts for the winter dances.

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Hawaiian Quilts

• Around 1858 these quilts were given to the prince
  as gifts to distinguish gifts from Hawaiians from
  those of missionaries. It was the mark of
  independence and distinction.

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The Quilts of Gees Bend

• An exhibition to show the steadfast continuity of
  a small community of Black women in Alabama.
• The Freedom Quilting Bee was a source of income
  during civil rights movement.
• This is one location where egalitarianism emerged
  in a most natural state.

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Gees Bend