Mary Black's Family Quilts includes a foreword by Michael Owen Jones, Professor of Culture and Performance, University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Craftsman of the Cumberlands: Tradition and Creativity.

This collection of Civil War correspondence chronicles the lives and concerns of three Confederate families in Piedmont, South Carolina. The letters in Upcountry South Carolina Goes to War provide valuable firsthand accounts of both battlefronts and the home front, sharing rich details about daily life as well as evolving attitudes toward the war. As the men of service age from each family join the Confederate ranks, they begin writing from military camps in Virginia and the Carolinas, describing combat in some of the war’s more significant battles. Though they remain staunch patriots to the Southern cause until the bitter end, the surviving combatants write candidly of their waning enthusiasm in the face of the realities of combat. The corresponding letters from the home front offer a more pragmatic assessment of the period and its hardships. Emblematic of the fates of many Southern families, the experiences of these representative South Carolinians are dramatically illustrated in their letters from the eve of the Civil War through its conclusion.

The definitive treasury of Massachusetts's historic quilts, and a tribute to the creative spirit of their makers

Rejecting traditional notions of what constitutes art, this book brings together essays on a variety of fiber arts to recoup women's artistic practices by redefining what counts as art. Although scholars over the last twenty years have turned their attention to fiber arts, redefining the conditions, practices, and products as art, there is still much work to be done to deconstruct the stubborn patriarchal art/craft binary. With essays on a range of fiber art practices, including embroidery, knitting, crocheting, machine stitching, rug making, weaving, and quilting, this collection contributes to the ongoing scholarly redefinition of women's relationship to creative activity. Focusing on women as producers of cultural products and creators of social value, the contributors treat women as active subjects and problematize their material practices and artifacts in the complex world of textiles. Each essay also examines the ways in which needlework both performs gender and, in turn, constructs gender. Moreover, in concentrating on and theorizing material practices of textiles, these essays reorient the study of fiber arts towards a focus on process?the making of the object, including the conditions under which it was made, by whom, and for what purpose?as a way to rethink the fiber arts as social praxis.

Drawing from 167 examples of decorative needlework—primarily samplers and quilts from 114 collections across the United States—made by individual women aged forty years and over between 1820 and 1860, this exquisitely illustrated book explores how women experienced social and cultural change in antebellum America. The book is filled with individual examples, stories, and over eighty fine color photographs that illuminate the role that samplers and needlework played in the culture of the time. For example, in October 1852, Amy Fiske (1785–1859) of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, stitched a sampler. But she was not a schoolgirl making a sampler to learn her letters. Instead, as she explained, “The above is what I have taken from my sampler that I wrought when I was nine years old. It was w[rough]t on fine cloth [and] it tattered to pieces. My age at this time is 66 years.” Situated at the intersection of women’s history, material culture study, and the history of aging, this book brings together objects, diaries, letters, portraits, and prescriptive literature to consider how middle-class American women experienced the aging process. Chapters explore the physical and mental effects of “old age” on antebellum women and their needlework, technological developments related to needlework during the antebellum period and the tensions that arose from the increased mechanization of textile production, and how gift needlework functioned among friends and family members. Far from being solely decorative ornaments or functional household textiles, these samplers and quilts served their own ends. They offered aging women a means of coping, of sharing and of expressing themselves. These “threads of time” provide a valuable and revealing source for the lives of mature antebellum women. Publication of this book was made possible in part through generous funding from the Coby Foundation, Ltd and from the Quilters Guild of Dallas, Helena Hibbs Endowment Fund.

These examples evince both the art and the craft during a golden age of handcrafting, from the early 1800s until 1946, a time before the widespread use of motorized sewing machines, synthetic fabrics, and prefabricated batting."--BOOK JACKET.

This essential book for all quilters and quilt collectors tells the fascinating story of quilting around the world, illuminated by the international quilt community’s top experts and more than 300 glorious color photographs. Covering Japan, China, Korea, and India; England, Ireland, France, and The Netherlands; Australia, Africa, Central America, North America, and beyond, Quilts Around the World explores both the diversity and common threads of quilting. Discover Aboriginal patchwork from Australia, intricate Rallis from the Middle East, Amish and Hawaiian quilts from the United States, Sashiko quilts from Japan, vivid Molas from Central America, and art quilts from every corner of the globe. Also included are twenty patchwork and applique patterns to use in your own quilt projects, inspired by designs from the world’s most striking quilts.

Although they are commonplace in American homes, quilts are much more than simple patchwork bed coverings and wall adornments. While many of these beautiful and intricate works of art are rich in history and tradition, others reflect the cutting-edge talent and avant-garde mastery of contemporary quiltmakers. Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers: Three Centuries of Creativity, Community, and Commerce is the first comprehensive study to approach quilts as objects of material culture that have adorned homes throughout the history of the commonwealth and the country. Linda Elisabeth LaPinta highlights such topics as quiltmaking in women's history, the influence of early Black quiltmakers, popular Kentucky quilt patterns, types, and colors, and the continuing importance of preserving the commonwealth's quilt history and traditions. The author provides a panoramic view of Kentucky quiltmaking from colonial America through the American Revolution, the Civil War to the 1900s, to the new millennium and the dynamic quilting industry of today. LaPinta reveals Kentucky's pivotal role in shaping significant aspects of American quilt culture—Kentuckians founded the first statewide quilt documentation project, created important exhibits and major quilt organizations, and established the National Quilt Museum. Rounding out this all-encompassing volume is a collection of fascinating and intimate artistic commentaries by notable quiltmakers, as well as discussion of the key players who have conserved, celebrated, and showcased the commonwealth's extraordinary quilt culture.

Southern folklife is the heart of southern culture. Looking at traditional practices still carried on today as well as at aspects of folklife that are dynamic and emergent, contributors to this volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture examine a broad range of folk traditions. Moving beyond the traditional view of folklore that situates it in historical practice and narrowly defined genres, entries in this volume demonstrate how folklife remains a vital part of communities' self-definitions. Fifty thematic entries address subjects such as car culture, funerals, hip-hop, and powwows. In 56 topical entries, contributors focus on more specific elements of folklife, such as roadside memorials, collegiate stepping, quinceanera celebrations, New Orleans marching bands, and hunting dogs. Together, the entries demonstrate that southern folklife is dynamically alive and everywhere around us, giving meaning to the everyday unfolding of community life.