Why do people make quilts in America? Quilt making started in the late 18th century, when women would spin and sew clothing together for their families. Later on women would come together in groups known as the quilting groups or what some call the quilting bees, and make quilts for their family and friends, like in the movie, How to Make an American Quilt. There was a young woman named Finn that was proposed to by her boyfriend named Sam. She decides that she wanted to visit with her aunt and grandmother to finish her thesis and think over the proposal. At her grandmother’s home, a quilting group came together, and she was shocked when she noticed that the quilt they were making was for her as a wedding gift for when she was to be married. The theme of the quilt is “Where Love Resides.” As Finn was unsure if she was ready for marriage or if he was even the one, the stories of the women in the group opened her eyes to the different types of love that existed. When making a quilt it is required long hours of work putting toward teaching others to sew, tells a story and was considered a work of art, made money and sold ownership, and was entitled a purpose to be seen.
The first characteristic of making a quilt is the long hours put towards teaching others to sew. My whole life is in that quilt, all my joys and all my sorrows stitched into those little pieces (Joyce 193). For some women making a quilt can take up their whole life and time because they can only work on it when they have alone time and they are so dedicated to building and mastering their story. Mrs. Trollope explained that one morning she left home around eleven to sew with seven other women, very like herself. She would produce her thimble and ask for work; it is presented to her, and the eight women would stitch together for hours, talking about what others wore to church, and about the handsome young men, until about three in the afternoon (Strasser 133). Women would sit around the sewing table talking about all the latest drama around the neighborhood and the men in their lives. Anna was the one to teach Finn’s grandmother and aunt how to sew in the movie. If they were to sew crooked she would rip the seams apart and make them start all over again. Sewing was about taking the time and doing it correctly. The time and energy you put towards making a quilt is what makes it so valuable and a gift to others (Chanen). Anna was the master quilter, and she was the one that told the group what the quilt was going to look like and that they all had to follow the rules of design. All seven women would come to the sewing circle and wait for Anna to tell them exactly what they needed to do for the day without any questions, and sewed until it was time for all of them to go home for the day. Sewing was linked to the friendships between women among all classes, but sewing mostly stayed in the family circle (Strasser 134). Every woman that sat around the table had been friends for a very long time and had grown up together. “Quilting delights our creative spirits, ideas and inspirations, with pretty bit of cloth, are woven together into a magical assortment of color, texture, and love. We are the magicians at the center of this transformation,” writes Nicole Chambers, author of The Quilt Maniac’s Playbook (Stitch in Time). Quilting for most people was sewing from within the soul, you are the designer of something beautiful and what it turns out to be is magical. Women in a quilting circle know that time is the key to making a perfect quilt, so dedicating the time during mandatory.
The second characteristic to producing a quilt would be how it told a story and was considered a work of art. In the quilt it would tell about the creators and about the historical and cultural context of their creations through the choices made in design, material, and context (Stories in Quilts). The quilt in the movie was based on where love resides, so everyone in the quilting group sewed where their love was for them. Signature quilts are made to remember or honor someone in your family or friend, by putting together a single pattern block with signatures of family and friends inked or embroidered on each block (Signature). Finn was honored because she was soon to be getting married, and they each had their own block and made their pattern of love. You do not understand the point of stitching without your own heart. “I don’t want to end up with some damn ugly quilt,” Anna said. She felt that no matter what the design was supposed to be about she did not want to mess that up with the colors not balancing out one another. Finding the proper combinations of fabrics and colors is an art form within itself (Chanen). To make a quilt you have to know exactly what colors and patterns are going to come together to make it turn out perfect. Without your ideas incorporated into the work, it is just an exercise, something to fill the long evening spent without companionship (Whitney 186). The quilting process is about what comes from you, and what your interpretation is of the design. That only you can tell your story and letting others see what your life was all about. Alvin Loving explains that his own grandmother was a quilter and that he would sit around and watch her and her friends in church as they made their quilts, and he states that his experience with that factors in behind his shaped paintings (Abstract Work). Children growing up watching someone in their family sew, quilt, and others things tend to follow the same designs but within their own creations. Finn grew up in her grandmother’s home watching her and the other seven ladies sew while she sat under the table looking at old pictures of her mother and father. She had seen this her whole life and when she became an adult she decided that she would write about the different culture groups and why they all sewed quilts. “I tremble sometimes when I remember what that quilt knows” (Joyce 193). Some people don’t always have a plan about what exactly they are going to sew about, but depending on their day they sew what was bothering them or what made them happy. It doesn’t matter the story behind the quilt, but your picture is considered a work of art.
The third characteristic to constructing a quilt would be making money and selling ownership to others. A wealthy woman would buy a poor woman’s quilt and enter it into a competition under her own name (Whitney 186). The aunt sold their family quilt to her owner to buy shoes and school books for Anna, and the owner put it up on her wall and told all her friends that she got the quilt for a steal. Around the time of slavery, women would practically sell anything to make sure that their family was taken care of no matter the value. Many years ago a visitor to Hawaii bought two quilts and took them back to her hometown and copied the designs, entered them into a competition under her name and won (Whitney 189). I feel bad for the woman whose designs were copied because these quilts could have meant so much to her and all the time spent to make those beautiful designs to have her ownership taken away from her without anyone knowing and that woman getting into some kind of trouble. It does come to show you that some people make quilts because of the meaning behind them, not about how much money they will make out of it. In the end anyone can take your artwork and label it as his/her own without you knowing and what was a valuable item to yourself is now considered profit to another.
The fourth characteristic to creating a quilt would be the purpose of being seen. African-American women living during the slave era, quilts were often used as signposts of slave resistance via the Underground Railroad (Abstract Work). Anna’s aunt stole the quilt from their owner so that Anna could now pass along the story of the family life of her grandmother and what she had went through and said that it was her quilt now and she needed to go and share the stories to her rich adult. As she had come to realize that she was now a part of that quilt as well, and the love of her daughter was the beginning of their journey. Women would use a quilt to tell the story of their life growing up or the history of their ancestors explaining the struggles and triumphs they had encountered to get where they are today. Making quilts now days is not to have them sit on their beds and use them as blankets but to have them on walls and buildings to make a statement. A traditional African-American quilt is looked greatly upon for their bold, unbalanced designs and bright colors (Columbia). In the movie Anna was a worker for Finn’s grandmother and aunt when they were all young. As the story went on the girls became close friends and as the movie went on the three women had now all lived in the same house and took care of each other. Anna’s quilt had started a new beginning for the life of her and her daughter Marianna. Glady fell in love with the way Anna sewed and she decided that she wanted to find something that she could be great at since her sister Hy was great at Tennis. So the quilting process started. For some their life begins with the simplest thing they had grown up learning to do, in this case sewing quilts was the beginning of a wonderful friendship and being seen for more than a slave but as a person just like them.
Therefore, quilting may take time with studying others techniques, publishes the life of the creator and was resembled as a masterpiece, pay the bills and losing your property, but at that time you had an ambition to be seen for who you are and to be heard as human. At the end of the movie, every woman had now relived their darkest moment in their life that had caused them to forget where their love had once resided and now could move on and finally be happy. Quilting is very therapeutic, whether you are in a group or just working alone (Chanen). When you are stressed or something is going wrong in your life finding a hobby or just something you like to do can really change your mood or your life altogether. When Finn finally received the finished quilt she knew that she was ready to marry Sam and that she loved him with all she had. Sometimes you have struggle to get where you need to be, and then finally you can look back and say this all had happened for a reason and accept it and move on.
Work Cited
“Abstract Work By African-Americans.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 50.35 (2004): B23. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Sept. 2013
Chanen, Jill S. “Stitchin’ Time.” ABA Journal. 84.3 (1998): 88. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.
How to Make an American Quilt. Dir. Jocelyn Moorhouse. Perf. Winoya Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft. Touchstone, 1995. DVD.
Macheski, Cecila. “How to Make an American Quilt.” Quilt Stories. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. 1994.
Macheski, Cecila. “Rose of Sharon.” Quilt Stories. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. 1994.
“Quilting: A Stitch In Time.” Saturday Evening Post. 280.5 (2008): 32-86. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.
“Quilting.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia 6th Edition (2013): 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.
“Signature Quilts Precious Keepsakes.” Quilting in America. 2009. http://www.quilting-in-america.com/Signature- Quilts.html.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done. New York: Strasser, 1982.
“Stories in Quilts.” Edsitement. http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/stories-quilts. 27 Sept. 2010. Web. 5 Sept. 2013.
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