Why quilts are cooler than you think — By Guest Mom Amy Smart

I blame the 80’s for any negative stereotype of quilting. (What don’t we blame the 80’s for, with the exception of U2?) Too much powder blue and dusty pink. My goal with this post is to disprove that stereotype and broaden views on the utter coolness of quilts.

I love old quilts. I think they are fantastic. Vintage quilts are a fascinating art form that in many ways preceded the Modern Art movement of the 20th century by almost 100 years.



This one was made by Julia Ann Cantwell in 1881 in frontier Utah. I love that it was almost a purely female expression born of necessity and a medium women found to express their creativity using small pieces of the remnants of their everyday lives. I also love that this art form thrived most in adversity, whether during the Civil War, the pioneering westward movement, the Great Depression, or even more contemporary, in Gee’s Bend, Alabama.

Gee’s Bend is an isolated, rural community on a bend in the Alabama River. Most of the residents are the descendents of slaves that worked on the cotton plantations. The quilts of Gee’s Bend, created starting in the 1940’s up to now, mimic the modern art movement in cosmopolitan areas, and yet they were created in rural, impoverished isolation. Women created them out of necessity as a functional means of keeping their families warm. The quilts became an art form born of their poverty, using the little bit of excess they had. Since their collective discovery, they have been displayed at world-class galleries.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Made by Martha Jane Pettway around 1945


And I love the description with this one:

“In the early 1990s, a former Bend resident living in Bridgeport, Connecticut, sent some garments — double-knit leisure suits — to Gee's Bend. Mary Lee Bendolph remembers: ‘My sister-in-law's daughter sent those clothes down here and told me to give them away, but didn't nobody want them. That knit stuff, clothes from way back yonder, don't nobody wear no more, and the pants was all bell-bottom. We ain't that out-of-style down here. I was going to take them to the Salvation Army but didn't have no way to get there, so I just made quilts out of them."

You can see more examples here and read about Gee’s Bend here.

Coming this week: some ways you can get your own sewing groove on.