Category: United States

OK, last post about the quilts on display at the National Quilt Museum. After the excitement of a holiday weekend in the US and Canada, you might think “oh, yay, another quilting post” and move on. You can, but you’ll miss puffins and blocks and a wooden quilt if you skip this post…

We’re back at the National Quilt Museum for round two featuring art quilts made by women, out of fabric and thread, creativity and patience. Today’s post focuses on non-traditional quilting of various kinds. Let’s kick it off with this one, a “small quilt” about 18 x 18 inches, which is why you see that nickel in the bottom right corner. It gives perspective to just how small those little squares actually are! Small quilts are exercises in patience as well as nimble fingers! The title “Eat More Carrots” comes from the author’s complaint to her friend that black-on-black quilting was…

By the 1840s, thanks to the expansion of the textile industry, quilting in the USA had become something more than just a functional task. Quilting bees were a socially acceptable way for women to gather together without the men in attendance; it was a space where they could talk about anything and everything as needles flew through fabric. To many women living on farms or homesteads far from town, the quilting bee was the one socially acceptable opportunity to gather with other women outside of church. Quilting has evolved into an art form, albeit one that is not as celebrated…