Information on Quilting

A handmade quilt is often both a personal record of the quilter's life and a larger picture of the social events that impacted that life. During slavery, African American women pieced together scraps of fabric to provide whatever warmth was available to them, but they also used those scraps to create beauty in their drab world. Often the quilts they created were pictorial versions of favorite stories; and sometimes, as in Clara's quilt, they conveyed critical information in hidden ways. It would be important to read: Peterson, Karen "Comforter of Slaves Bound for Freedom: 2 Women Unraveled the Code in Quilts" in USA Today January 17, 1999.

From 1775 to 1875, patchwork flourished in America. Patchwork quilts, also known as pieced quilts, are made by cutting and sewing geometric fabric shapes together into square or rectangular blocks which, when put together, form the large overall design of the quilt. Pieced quilts are intriguing not only for their myriad variety of colors and designs, but also for their extraordinary workmanship. As evidenced by some of their names, pieced designs were inspired by many historic events in this New World, such as the admission of a new state, the opening of the West, the railroad, as well as many political and social movements. Women, denied the right to vote, literally sewed their political views into quilts, using such pattern names as Lincoln's Platform, Whig's Defeat, Fifty-four Forty or Fight, Clay's Compromise, and the Underground Railroad, among many others. Religion had a very strong influence on society, and Biblical references are found in many quilt names, such as Jacob's Ladder, Star of Bethlehem, Cross Roads to Jericho, Cross and Crown, and David and Goliath.

from: Marie Salazar. The Quilt: Beauty in Fabric and Thread. (New York: Friedman/Fairfax, 1997, p. 9.)

This was one of the rare moments when the women had time to themselves. The mistress supervised their cutting and stitching during the day. But a quilting bee was private. Each woman could be an artist with scissors and cloth. Even the menfolk were not allowed in until the quilting was over. For a few hours, needlework set the enslaved women free.

Usually they made plain quilts from large squares of fabric in a single color or print. Other quilts were fancy, with scraps of fabric pieced into intricate patterns. Sometimes the women used the mistress's patterns, designs with names like Flying Geese and Rising Sun. Just as often they made up their own designs by piecing together long strips of cloth. Every quilt was beautiful in its own way. An ex-slave said when she showed off her sunburst quilt, "Hit's poetry, ain't it?"

from: Mary E. Lyons. Stitching Stars: The Story Quilts of Harriet Powers. (New York: Scribner's, 1993, pp. 6-7.)

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Created December 28, 1998 Last Reviewed and Updated January 21, 1999