The History Of Quilting &
The Role Of Women

Page 2

The Great Depression 1929- 1939

One of the worst periods of economic times in our country was when Black Friday and the stock market crashed. My dad recounted many stories of this time. He was only 11 yrs. old then and the oldest of five. He was forced to quit school to find some work to help support his family. Times were really terrible and industry pretty much came to a standstill. There were no jobs to be found and many worked for food. With all this going on, who really could afford to quilt? Not many!

The print industry also suffered economically.  Not many people could splurge on the extra things like quilting magazines and fabric. This industry became creative and pushed dreams of happy thoughts and optimism to all women who quilted on a regular basis.  To get any kind of market, they created new quilt patterns, tips and stories in their magazines to encourage women to continue to buy.

One idea that was encouraged seemed reminiscent of colonial times where quilts were made for items of necessity, such as bedding. When you couldn’t afford heat, a warm quilted comforter was a good excuse for women to quilt. It was a way to “keep her hands” in her craft, and still feel like she was contributing to the family household in those tough economic times.

Our country seemed to be reverting back to styles from the simpler days of the colonial times, in contrast to the ornate and more “crazy” fads and decor of the Victorian era. The light pastel color schemes were back in fashion and the styles turned towards colonialism prevailed not only in quilting, but in other facets of society. Architecture and furniture was made with the colonial period in mind, and people began searching their attics and trunks for colonial items that might have been buried.

Appliqué and embroidery became sought after by many artisans, and quilting became more specialized and seen as an artistic craft, rather than just a hobby.  During this time, quilts were embellished frequently with   appliqué or embroidered motifs, and were even bought with the motifs prestitched on them.

We women have always had the talent to make “something out of nothing”!

When material was too expensive to buy, we quilted out of scraps to make into beautiful quilts, and then sold them to support our families.  This was often done by working out of the home doing piecework for different industries such as cotton, quilting business or firms in the private sector. This applied to all women, both in the rural as well as the urban areas.

Pat yourself on the back ladies – You earned it!

World War II 1939-1945

WW II had the most causalities of any war known by man.  The invasion of Poland by Germany had begun the war in Europe, and reached global proportions when Japan dropped the bomb on the U.S. on December 7, 1941.  This war deeply affected everyone around the world.   I could never begin to write in depth about all of the ramifications of this world conflict, as that is best left for the historians.  My dad, Lawerence Schiavoni Sr.(May he Rest in Peace) earned his Purple Heart and Bronze Star fighting like many others, to preserve the  democracy and freedom that we so cherish.

There might be many of you out there who are the children or relatives (such as me) of a WWII vet. Most of them are now passed on, but it leaves those of us remaining with a special pride that can’t be explained, as this was such an important war for freedom.

You’re probably wondering why I’m rambling on, and where quilting fits in with this. Well, I’ll tell you why! The world was too busy fighting off the German armies to really think about quilting. Quilting was put on the “backburner” for many years.

Women In The Workforce

It’s not that women stopped quilting altogether, but there were more important things women were doing than quilting.  My mother, like other women of that time, was gone to work in the mills and other industrial occupations that only men had worked. They had to in order to replace all the vacant jobs that were left by men who went off to war. Someone had to fill all these jobs in society, as our economy still had to grow, survive and support our troops. The tenacity of the female gender, once again, helped our country in so many ways. We saved rubber, paper, nylons, metal, anything and everything was used to support the war effort.

We comforted our wounded, and supported our troops, as we have done in the past. No matter how tired we were, we didn’t mind because we knew our men were suffering more!

War And The Media

This feeling of patriotism is similar to that of earlier war efforts, such as the Civil War.  Societal needs always prevailed over personal needs.  Our Freedom was at stake and our patriotism seemed to be at the highest pitch, more than any other time in history. The media expounded this theme in movies and magazines.  Quilt styles flared with the red, white and blue of the stars and stripes , as well as  many other beautiful patriotic patterns.

I’ll try to get some pictures of some of these quilts  so you can see for yourself how beautiful they were (I’m still trying to figure out the picture downloading- sorry).

Patriotic themes prevailed of glory and freedom of the times. Common symbols of the times used in quilting were airplanes, the letter “V” for victory, and of course, and the red, white and blue stripes of our country’s flag. Patriotic themes also were highly publicized by newspapers and magazines of the times, giving women new patterns to use.

Wartime Quilts

Quilters were encouraged to make quilts not just for our troops, but especially for those poor families in war-torn Europe (our allies), whose homes were destroyed, or barely standing in the remains and rubble of shellfire.  Imagine living in a house with no heat and no windows! Wool was a desirable material that was utilized and encouraged to make quilts out of for those overseas.

One way quilts were displayed was with a blue star on it representing a family member serving in the armed forces (where you could have up to five stars displayed). Sadly, if a family member has died, a gold star was added to it. This banner, even if not quilted, was usually displayed prominently with pride in the window of their house. This is significant in my family as my grandmother displayed four stars for her sons ( my father and his three brothers)  A great movie you should also watch is “The Fighting Sullivans”, (one of many wonderful WWII movies,) in which their house  displayed five stars for each of the sons in the armed forces (a must see movie ).

The American Legion has a great site on this banner and other military history that you would like. They have always been there for our soldiers!

In Conclusion:   The art of quilting never stopped but did subside for several decades until the 1960’s when it did make a comeback.  I am proud of what my dad tried to do to preserve freedom for our country.  I think we all owe a lot to all of our veterans who gave their lives, and who are currently serving in our armed forces.

Thanks Dad !

The 1960′s And Later

The world was constantly changing and current events continued to influence the resurgence of quilting. Between the Cold War and the Vietnam War, quilting made a comeback. One of the movements that might have influenced this was the hippies, peace movements, and all their “make love not war” themes.  Remember that communes were very popular to the younger crowd of people in those days, growing their own food and making some of their own clothes. Some of you probably still have some old peace shirt or some love beads hanging around.

Yes it was finally time to go back to appreciate handcrafted items, and articles that were made yourself.  There is a lot to be said for making things with your own hands rather than buying them.  This seemed to be the notion that might have spurned a newfound interest in quilting.

Another event that triggered the resurgence of quilting was the bicentennial of 1976. There was a lot of fanfare that year with parades and fireworks.  I grew up in Boston and remember the Fourth of July fireworks in Boston on the Esplanade. It was awesome!   It seemed there were more arts and crafts fair around, and it follows that quilting came back in fashion.

Fabrics and styles changed. You only have to dig out your photo albums to see what people were wearing. The most common fabric back in the 1970’s was polyester, which was very hard to quilt with. Experienced quilters know that 100% cotton is what high quality quilts are made of, but it was very hard to find. It took a lot of pressure on the fabric industry to begin “real” cotton production again.

A lot has changed since then. Even now the tools we use for quilting were nonexistent until the 1980’s. Mats weren’t made of plastic but generally cardboard, and plain scissors for cutting, no fancy rotaries. Today there are lots of neat gadgets compared to the past that make quilting so much easier.

There is a lot of professional research and books being done on quilting- just take a look on the Web or in your local library and you’ll see hundreds.  Hopefully soon, I’ll try to put a list together for you with some of our favorites as well as yours. Keep an eye on the Helpful Links Page for it!

Don’t forget to drop us a line and let us know what books or magazines you like best.

Thanks for stopping by to visit!   I hope that you found something interesting, and learned something along the way. I know I did.

Talk to you soon!