Politics. I just can’t seem to get away from them and I am truly fed up! So, this morning, sitting in my shower where I do my best thinking, I started cogitating quilting politics. There just have to be some. The rest of life is about them. So, let’s call the traditional quilters ‘conservatives’. That makes the more progressive quilter the ‘liberal’, I guess. Can’t you just see it, hundreds of years ago? The conservative quilters lived out on the working farms and ranches and hand pieced quilts from dresses, pants and maybe even boot scraps. These quilts were used thoroughly, washed often and very function-driven. The liberal quilters in the cities would buy fabric (horrors!) and make both functional and show quilts. Wow, I’m surprised that didn’t start its’ own revolution! And then came sewing machines. What a war that must have been. The conservative probably didn’t believe that was ‘real’ piecing or applique. The liberal was probably just happy to crank out those tops.
What could come next? Oh yes, machine quilting. Woe is me, what a loss of craft that must have been. In the 1980’s when I started quilting, the machine quilting process was still looked down on (you know, right down the nose to the ground). And then we actually started buying home-use longarm machines. And you would send your quilt out for someone else to do the work! Surely, quilting had lost its way.
With all of the changes to the quilting world, it is not lost on me that remnants and treasures for all of the variations in quilting are highly sought after. We still cherish a quilt made of scraps from a farmhouse, the fancy Baltimore Album quilts from the same era, the hand pieced, machine pieced, hand quilted or machine quilted samples of past artists.
We have watched the interest in quilting ebb and flow right up to the present day where it is an art form in all senses of the phrase. Current techniques include modern fabrics, abstract forms, thread painting, detailed quilt portraits, masterpieces. A quilt show is more a display of art than craft. The current quilters include conservative and liberal beliefs and we still appreciate all of the forms. A quilter that ooh’s and ah’s over a traditional log cabin quilt will also appreciate a modern painted, dyed, thread filled chimpanzee quilt. Today’s quilter supports every segment of the craft (or art, as the case may be). We still hand piece, hand quilt, machine piece, machine or hand applique or machine quilt. We make patterns from very old blocks and very new blocks. We don’t always use blocks. We haven’t let go of the past to cherish the present. As far as I know, blood has never been shed over a quilting technique. Well, except for the blood from needle accidents and modern day rotary cutters! What does this tell me?
Quilters should govern this country, and probably the world…
See you at the meeting.