QuiltArtz: Lesson Plan for Quilted Liberty

Rebekka Seigel
Quilted Liberty Study Guide

Generations of Americans were brought up on the story about Betsy Ross making our first flag. This story has been somewhat discredited, but whether or not Betsy made the first flag, there were many other women who combined their skill at needlework with their patriotic feelings. Quilters especially have worked their joy, anger, sympathy and political preferences into exciting and often artistically original pieces.

There seem to have been waves of patriotism at certain times in our history or specific themes that appealed to quilters. There were outbursts of eagles in the first half of the nineteenth century, more or less copied from the Great Seal of the United States, perhaps spurred by the War of 1812 and the westward expansion.

Some political movements obviously inspired women, or at least quilters, more than others. The Whig Party which lasted only two short decades, until the election of 1852, must have had enormous appeal. From it came patterns such as The Whig Rose, Clay’s Choice and finally Whig’s Defeat. Henry Clay, who spearheaded the new party under the Whig name in opposition to Andrew Jackson said, “I’d rather be right than President.” He was probably right more often than many of the politicians of his time, but he never made it to the presidency. He became one of the few losing candidates long and well remembered, at least in small part because the quilters of his time memorialized both him and his party.

The Civil War touched every household in America, and the quilters expressed their feelings with needle and thread. Eagles appeared then as symbols of the Union and flags of both kinds blossomed on quilts from the North and the South. For some years after the war the heroes, names and faces were worked into various styles of quilts, especially the Victorian Crazy quilts of the last years of the nineteenth century. One particularly touching quilt from this era is housed in the Kentucky Historical Museum and is referred to as the Graveyard Quilt. It features a central, fenced-in “graveyard” with the coffins of the dead members of the family inside. Coffins representing other family members are appliqued throughout the border of the quilt. As each family member died, their coffin was unstitched from the border and moved to the “graveyard”.

In the twentieth century this mixture of the quilter’s art and the political statement died down until the Great Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as savior, fired the imagination of American women. There was a renaissance of quilting of all kinds in the 1930’s. During this period Eleanor Roosevelt’s efforts on behalf of American arts and crafts gave all women’s arts new impetus, and even the WPA (Works Progress Administration) funded some special quilt projects. New designs were appearing and women were again using fabric as an art medium to create what amounted to huge posters declaring their feelings about the Depression, the administration and finally WWII. The time tested idea of making a quilt as a fund raiser helped to buy at east one bomber “for our boys”.

When World War II ended, women had started along the first steps to careers outside the home, and for awhile needlework fell out of favor. Perhaps it was a desire to do something more artistic with needle and thread that brought out the modern craze in quiltmaking that began in 1976 as a way of celebrating the nation’s Bicentennial. There are even those who believe that the quilt revival of the 1970’s and 1980’s is closely linked with the women’s movement. Certainly, when politically conscious women use needle and thread to express their sentiments about government and leaders and war and peace, they are taking a stand on subjects of world importance in a time honored feminine way.