Quilting In 1800s

Other yarn dolls were not dressed with felt or material; instead, the yarn formed the dress for a girl, or the pants for a boy. Yarn dolls were made during the Colonial American period from homespun yarn. Throughout United States history, the most popular handmade doll was the cloth, rag, or yarn doll, especially during Colonial America coming as far back as 1630s.

In “The Century Quilt”, the speaker illustrates the importance of the family quilt in which determines her future heritage to pass on. The speaker states “My sister and I were in love with Meema’s Indian blanket.” to create nostalgic tone and to relive a sentimental moment in her life. The blanket provided peace, love, and safety to the speaker during the times she spent underneath it. “I remembered how I’d planned to inherit that blanket, how we used to wrap ourselves at play in its folds and be chieftains and

physically and mentally, quilting has acted as an art that transcends racial barriers and to bring

On viewing her work, I am reminded of the traditional art of quilt making, an art once dismissed as “women’s work” but reevaluated by the Pattern and Decoration movement during the second wave of feminism during the 1970’s. Historically quilt makers have used its qualities to communicate political and social messages. For example, the Abolition quilts made during the US Civil war era were inscribed with messages decrying the evils of slavery. However, Gower uses the repetitions of the motifs and tessellations of quilt making practice to draw attention to the excesses of mass

In the poem “The Century Quilt” by Marilyn Nelson Waniek the “Century Quilt” is a nostalgic necessity of the narrator. The upbringing of nostalgia throughout the poem is the telling of an Odyssey, a journey home though not physical but emotional. Through the constant use of pragmatic imagery that is erupting with allusions to the past and the unusual use of form that gives the poem a platform to project itself Waniek is able to produce a stunning display of emotion and nostalgia that displays the complex meanings of the quilt and the vital importance of it to the narrator.

She selfishly praised quilts as "priceless" (91) whereas she thought the same piece was old fashioned and out of style when offered to her for college. By carrying the quilts she claims to carry the heritage, however, she shuns the lifestyle of her family, which is of course a part of her heritage.

The quilts are used in the representation of what heritage means to Mama and Maggie versus Dee’s view of them. Mama describes that:

In her essay: The Quilt, Anna Quindlen utilizes pathos to engage her audience and demonstrate to them that no matter how improbable, America can come together. Quindlen first describes the horrors of the U.S when she writes of “the lynching of blacks, the denial of rights to women, the murders of gay men” in order

History and the wide variety cultures has altered the way women quilt. Quilts in Colonial America resembled their culture and lands from which the quilters had come from. The wealthy and social prominent settlers in the south began to make patchwork quilts after the middle class and poor women had been working on patchwork for hundreds of years. The Puritans brought sturdy fabrics and simple designs, and in northeastern America the colors were more colorful. Linsey-woolsey, also known as woolen bedcovers were not often made as a staple within the household.

Born in 1837 from a rural area of the state of Georgia, Harrier Power was an African American folk artist and quilt maker. During the Civil War, she is known best for her 19th-century Southern powerful quilting, Bible Quilt 1886 and Bible Quilt 1898. Harriet had a bold, sophisticated and distinctive technique for recording Bible stores, astronomical events and local legends on her traditional American quilts. Quilting is still considered as a form of artistic expression in the African American community. Unlike Power, Henry O Tanner encouraged his interest for art by painting rich, thick, and dark color, scenes from African American lives and mostly biblical scenes. Tanner artwork inspires a genre painter to portray their race with sensitivity

What Dee failed to realize was that the quilts she wanted were in fact a part of their family’s heritage. Each quilt was made with with parts of clothing from different family members and sown together to show their importance in the family and also for remembrance of who they all

Quilts are traditionally thought of as precious antiques that illustrate rich history and imagery. Their fabric is laced with beautiful patterns accounting tales of the past that older generations with to preserve. In Marilyn Nelson Waniek's poem, "The Century Quilt," Nelson employs structure, vivid imagery, and a fanciful tone to illustrate how a family quilt is used to connect generations with one another with this precious family heirloom.

Even though slave quilts are stated as a resource slaves used, the slave quilts are also believed to be a myth. Historians believe that the slave quilts have no truth and are simply just a myth. “Quilt codes are not mentioned in the 19th century slave narratives or 1930s oral testimonies of former slaves. Originally, no original quilts remain” (fvcc, 7). Since there is no original recordings of slave quilts, historians are left to believe that these quilts are just myths. Historians claim that slave quilts are myth, but people still believe the quilts actually existed. The topic on if slave quilts are fact or myth will last forever and may never come to a conclusion, but slave quilts are always claimed as a fact in articles, stories, etc. The

The process of quilting goes as far back as the Egyptians, the Chinese, and the Persians; introduced into Europe by the Crusades (Hedges, 2014). The oldest dated quilted surface dates back to 3400 BC. This discovery was found in the robe of an Egyptian carved figure. The quilted surface consisted of many textile layers stitched together in the pattern of a raised diamond; this suggests that the used of padding and stitching has been around for thousands of years. In eastern Indian, the making of Sujuni worked on, or embroidered quilts are an art that dates back to the eighteenth century (Gunning, 2000). Europeans settled into the original thirteen colonies in the late 1600s and with their arrival they brought quilting to America (African American Quilting, 2007). Some of these European women taught quilt making to the slaves they owned leading to the development of a vibrant culture of quilt making in African American culture. Patchwork quilting was an American quilting style by the mid-19th century (African American Quilting, 2007). The classic patchwork American quilt was created out of the need for

Walker’s story “Everyday use” describes an interaction within a small African American family. Where the speaker’s daughter ‘Dee’ comes to visit her and ‘Maggie’ Dee’s younger sister during which, Dee demands the quilts mother has already promised to Maggie. The argument causes Maggie to concede and Dee leaves the pair with some harsh parting words. Mother wants them to be put to everyday use and she promises them to Maggie because she will use them. Like archaic pieces belonging to a museum Dee regards the quilts, "But they're priceless!" and even goes as far as to warn her mother of what a foolish decision it would be to give them to her sister, “Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!" she said. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them