Semiquincentennial, Bisesquincentennial, Sestercentennial, Quarter Millennial, 

or 250^th Anniversary

Semiquincentennial, Bisesquincentennial, Sestercentennial, Quarter Millennial, 250^th Anniversary – These United States of America are on track to celebrate 250 years of having the longest lasting democracy under a constitutional republic.  We, the people working towards a more perfect union and an identity of AMERICAN – just an AMERICAN and all things American – no hyphens, prefixes, suffixes, buts, and/or excuses. America a nation founded on principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, no royalty and heredity titles, and a where the content of your character and what you say and do is the hallmark of who you are, and you are judged as an individual on your own merits and talents. Lastly, where you are free to think and be anything, including to make criminal and radical choices and suffer your consequences, that you can imagine and be and free to FAIL repeatedly and get up, make changes, adjust, and thrive. I am an American, an American in love with being an American, living in the rural Town of Alma, Jackson County, Wisconsin. Before coming to America in the late 19^th century, all my ancestor’s origin stories, are of a landless, hardworking, Catholic Christian, second families who lived and toiled in what is now Germany. Contrast this to George Washington’s life as a fifth-generation landowner living in the Virginia Colony in 1776 and many 9th generation American living in the original thirteen colonies. Enough about me. As an American, I am choosing to prepare and to celebrate America250, in my own way documenting my ramblings on America from my perspective – I will focus on who I am as an American, who I am becoming, and where I strive towards creating a more perfect union.

My ramblings start with American Craft specifically the iconic craft of quilting. My rambled writings will focus on myth, legend, and fact, a brief history, and how and why the goodness of this makes us better and reflects an American identity and how we move forward to create America in all things – American Art, American Cooking, American Design, American Manufacturing, American America.

 

Quilting as an American Art and Craft

 

 Historical knowledge and artifacts tell us that quilting starts in Egypt and China spreads to India to Europe especially to the Dutch and English comes to America with the early colonists’ spreads to Indigenous people and enslaved people and all other people coming to America from elite to the poorest. Quilting starts as whole cloth quilts and evolving to upcycle craft from scrap fabric and becoming all American from Gees Bend to Native American Stars with a free range from art quilting for décor, to presentation quilts for veterans with the Quilts of Valor, to quilts for needy from a variety of charitable endeavors. I fondly recall mothers and grandmothers making “baby” quilts for the newest members of their families, to the women at the local church who make quilts for all the world over, to highly skilled artisans winning prizes in contests from the local county fair to the Paducah Quilt Show. There are barn quilts (hung to decorate) to hand sewn and quilted masterpieces to grace bedroom décor to highly functioning craft from upcycled fabrics to keep homeless and needy warm. In every quilt there is so much more than fabric, fiber, and design. Modern quilting in America - from no rules free expression, to community, to charity - is essentially a hallmark that celebrates are they themes and our uniqueness of Americans being American.

What is a quilt? Well, it really is as simple as a multi-layer textile (fabric sandwich) – two layers of bread (fabric composed of a quilt top and back) with a filler(batting) in between and stitched together. This truly encompasses a large genre and techniques of varies kinds from all work being done by hand in a home setting to using highly mechanized and sophisticated machinery in large factories from very simple to elaborate from functional craft to high-end decorative art.  A quilt is fiber (cotton), textiles, colors, designs, shapes, formed with gentle hands, warming, cozy, and beauty. A quilt can be patchwork, or applique, pieced, whole-cloth, or crazy. A quilt is American art and craft at its finest from the practical and necessary to high art.

 American quilting has evolved with two main methods of creating quilt tops of patchwork and applique techniques. It is a mostly woman dominated art and craft. From coast to coast from Alaska to Hawaii, quilting in America is practiced in the largest cities to the least populated rural areas. The typical American quilter is a 60-year-old woman who works on about ten projects in a given year. American quilting has branches of quilting that have a uniqueness rich in identity and tradition - Amish, Baltimore Album, African American, Barn Quilts (not fabric), Crazy Quilts, Hawaiian Quilts, Native American Star Quilts, Commemorative and Pictorial Quilting, and Modern Quilting.

 Quilting is an example of an art and craft coming to America, the art and craft being practiced, the art and craft spreading and becoming owned by many but in a unique way. Make the art and craft grow - make quilting grow – make one, buy one, put one on your bed, wear a quilted coat or jacket or scarf, or hang one up on any or every wall. Know that you are celebrating America by using American fiber, textiles, design, and art and craft. Take a drive and see a barn quilt tour, visit a show or display, ask your friends and relatives to show their work, preserve a family heirloom, wear a quilt out (yes, quilts are made to be used and worn out). Enjoy and appreciate America by using and appreciating American Art and Craft – especially American Quilting.