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Quilt History Snippets - March 2024
By Kathleen (Kathy) L Moore
Posted: 2024-03-08T20:00:00Z

Quilt History Snippets for March, 2024…by Kathy Moore


What: Review of Uncoverings 1992, Volume 13 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group, edited by Laurel Horton

Topic: “Show and Tell in Contemporary Quiltmaking Culture”

Author: Kristen M. Langellier


For two years Kristen Langellier collected data from three quilt guilds in Maine for her field study project. Langellier collected data by participant observation, interviews with quilters, and a survey of the Maine state quilter’ guild. [p. 127] She found that “the form and practice of Show and Tell resists the hierarchical norms of public cultures of performance of quilts as art and quilts as commodities separate from their makers’ lives.” In other words, “Show and Tell serves quilters’ own multiple and varied interests within the changing quiltmaking culture and social roles for women near the end of the twentieth century.”[p. 127]


Much of what Langellier observed will come as no surprise to those of us who go to guild meetings, particularly the notion that Show and Tell is, for many members, a highlight of the meetings. She notes that it dates from the 1970s when the present quiltmaking revival began. She perceptively points to two aspects of the late twentieth century quilt revival which differ from that of the nineteenth century…namely seeing quilts as a form of art and/or as commodities. [p. 128] These are points that could be contested, but that’s for a different review!


Seeing Show and Tell events from a feminist perspective, Langellier argues that they are an “oppositional practice that allows quilters to maneuver within the constraints of femininity, of public speaking, and of the emergent and changing culture of the contemporary quiltmaking revival.” Further, “Show and Tell constructs an empowering identity for quilters that is creative and independent, egalitarian and collective, and situated between the private sphere of the family and the public sphere of art, the marketplace, and cultural performance…[that it] contributes to an alternative form of communication and community among quilters…”[p. 129]


There is considerable analysis of Show and Tell as performance as well as narrative/storytelling and as “oppositional practice,” her terminology for “resistance to the norms of public performance…”. [p. 141] One wonders if this research and analysis would stand the test of time if replication of method and analysis was attempted in the early twenty-first century. What changes in method or analysis would need to occur? What new or different conclusions would Langellier come to in the present?


If you do not have a copy of this, or any, edition of Uncoverings, check the publication list on the AQSG website to see if the particular volume is available…many still are. To access an online version of any issue of Uncoverings find the links at the AQSG website or the Quilt Index at www.quiltindex.org. As always, you can contact me at kmoore81@austin.rr.com