A Glimpse of the Japanese Quilting Community:The Influence of Quilting Schools

by Penny Nii and Shizuko Kuroha

While the Japanese had traditionally made a few patchwork

and quilted articles such as small patchwork bags and futon,thick, tied sleeping mats and covers, their postwar introduction

to the American quilt did not occur until 1975, when an

exhibition was mounted at the Shiseido gallery in Tokyo. That

exhibition, plus a smaller one derived from it and mounted the

same year at the American Center in Kyoto, and a larger 1976

exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, one floor

devoted to the history of quiltmaking in America and another to

the aesthetics of quilts, received a great deal of publicity in all

media in Japan. Those exhibitions, assembled by Jonathan

Holstein and Gail van der Hoof were followed by many others

which brought to the Japanese, in whose culture textiles have

always been honored, a very comprehensive introduction to

American quilts. There were exhibitions of antique quilts of all

types and sizes, including Amish, doll and child's quilts, and

contemporary American quilts. In the following years a

contemporary quilt movement began and developed in Japan

and is now flourishing, manifesting a number of features

unique to that country. This article explores some of the basic

characteristics, and the reasons for them, of that movement.

—Editors' Note

Consider this phenomenon: Japan, an island country of 124million people, is second in the world only to the United Statesin its number of active quilters. A recent estimate puts them at800,000 to 1 million, of whom twenty-five percent are consideredto be serious quiltmakers. They support quilt-related businessamounting to at least 200 million dollars a year and read threemajor quilt magazines with a combined circulation of 300,000readers. Their quilts are increasingly seen in major internationalexhibitions and competitions, where some have earned topawards. International awareness of Japanese quilts has also

been furthered by quilt books and exhibitions originating inJapan. While there are some similarities between quiltmakingin Japan and the United States, there are also profound differencesin the way people learn to quilt, how their aesthetic is formed,how quilts are exhibited, and how quiltmakers see themselves.In this article we will discuss the structure of the quiltingcommunity in Japan, focusing primarily on the quilting schools.We begin by looking at a profile of a typical Japanese quilter,and then describe some basic characteristics of Japanese societyas these relate to group activities. This is followed by three casestudies of quilting schools and a brief description of the craft/quilting schools, from which we draw some conclusions aboutthe Japanese quilt community.

A typical Japanese quilter:1. Learns to quilt at a quilting school,2. Goes to a school or group meetings on a regular basis,3. Exhibits quilts annually at school-sponsored shows, and,4. Makes a particular style

of quilts which herschool advocates.

To be recognized as a"legitimate" quilter, a Japanesequilter needs to belong to aquilting school or a recognizedquilting group whose primaryfunction is organized teaching.

Generalizations often donot describe the activities of aparticular individual withcomplete accuracy, but theycan serve to highlight the basiccharacteristics of a group as awhole. Japanese quilters are

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A Glimpse of the Japanese Quilting Community: The Influence of Quilting Schoolscontinued from page 1

strongly tied to a group, whereas in the United States, a quilter'sassociations with quilting groups are often incidental and socialin nature. Although there are many influential quilt guilds in theUnited States, belonging to such a group does not have theimport such an association has for Japanese quilters. Saidanother way, not belonging to a quilt group does not particularlyaffect the stature of an American quilter, but in Japan this hasa serious negative effect.

Quilting is an American institution imported into Japan.There, however, the activity is carried out in a social contextquite different from the U.S. Although Japan is a modern,democratic society, it is also a society whose basic socialstructures evolved over many centuries and is quite different insignificant ways from those of the United States. To understandand appreciate Japanese quilters and their quilts, we need tounderstand the environment in which they live and create.

Background: Groups, Hierarchy, and the IndividualThe Japanese are more likely than Westerners to operate in

groups, or at least to see themselves as operating in this way.Certainly, no difference is more significant between Japaneseand Americans than the Japanese tendency to emphasize thegroup at the expense of the individual. Groups of every sortabound in Japanese society, play a larger role in peoples lives,and offer them more of a sense of individual self-identificationthan do corresponding groups in the United States.[1] Thereare groups composed of old schoolmates, associates at work,women's society, students of tea ceremony, and now, quilters.The groups are all tightly organized and occupy a large role intheir members' lives: they go out together and travel together.Loyalty to a group is often more important than family loyalty.

This emphasis on the group has had a pervasive influenceon the Japanese character and lifestyle. A group player is moreappreciated than the solo star. Where an American might seekto emphasize his or her independence and originality, theJapanese will do the reverse. An old Japanese saying goes, "Anail that sticks out will be hammered down." This characteristichas a profoundly negative effect in the art world, of which quiltingcan be considered a part. "One impasse for many artists is theproblem of artistic individuality. . . However democratic the societyhas become, stepping out of line still invites censure." [2]

With a recent feudal background and a society that emphasizesparticular relationships, it is inevitable there will be ranks andstatus among Japanese. Their interpersonal relations and thegroups to which they belong are usually structured hierarchically.[3] Thus, an individual's participation in a group confers status,not only within the group, but within the society as a whole;the higher the status of the group, the higher is the individualstatus. The ability to confer status is one aspect of the growingpopularity of art. [4]

The Iemoto systemThe Iemoto system is a school system used in the world of

traditional Japanese arts such as music, dance, flower arrangementand tea ceremony. "Ie" means household, the primary unit ofsocial organization in Japan. The concept of Ie also serves as astructural basis for contemporary Japanese groups. The notion ofa head of a household who looks after its members and to whomthey, in turn, pledge loyalty, is carried over to group organization.

The Iemoto is the founder or the current head of the school.The Iemoto of each school inherits the secret traditions of theprevious Iemoto; he is the final arbiter of the school's practicesand has the authority to pass them on. He has also the sole rightto award certificates of achievement, to publish the school'ssecret techniques, and to expel members of the school in orderto maintain doctrinal orthodoxy.' Each Iemoto is followed bydisciples who are recognized by him or her as accreditedteachers and who in turn are the masters of their own disciples.Many of the Iemoto-led schools are hierarchical organization ofconsiderable magnitude.2 [5]

The Iemoto system, which has been a feature of Japaneselife since the 17th century, was used in the context of teachingvarious martial and courtly arts (such as tea ceremony andmusic). Until around 1955, those who participated in thissystem were mostly male. Starting around 1955 variants of theIemoto school system began to be used by various craft fields,together with flower arranging and tea ceremony.[6]

Quilting, a recently imported art/craft, has not yet beenplaced in a single uniform school system by its practitioners.Some quilting schools use the traditional Iemoto system whilein other schools there is no vestige of the old system. However,because of the basic nature of Japanese society, all schools areorganized following the hierarchical, paternalistic pattern,characteristic of all organized Japanese groups. Even among themost modern group loyalty is expected, and the head teacheris expected to take care for the quilters' welfare. We will looknow at three representative Japanese quilting schools and makebrief mention of the craft/quilting schools.

Example 1: A school in the style of the Iemoto system3The first school we will consider, and which we will call the

"Iemoto" school, is the largest quilting school in Japan. It hasan organizational structure resembling the Iemoto system andis the most traditional of the three schools under study.

The headmaster of this school is a well-known quilter in herown right. The Iemoto school maintains that the only "true"quilts are those that have the look of American antique quilts.Its quilters use only traditional patterns and printed fabrics, andall quilts must be hand sewn and hand quilted. Innovations inpatterns and the use of solid fabrics are forbidden. The schoolfocuses on sewing and quilting techniques producing quilterswith great technical skills. Quilters from this school have arecognizable style, which is definitely a traditional antique look.

The Quilt Journal Page 2 Volume 2, Number 2 1993

The school's curriculum is divided into four courses, eachlasting one year, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Instructorcourses. To sign up for a course, a student must pay a registrationfee as well as monthly tuition. For example, the registration fee forthe Beginner course is 20,000 yen4 (15,000 yen for the Intermediatecourse), and the monthly tuition is 9000 yen/month for the Beginnercourse. In addition to the tuition, the students must buy text booksand required materials from the school. The basic contents of thecourses are:

After the completion of each course a certificate is issued. Astudent must pay between 15,000 to 20,000 yen to receive thecertificate. After graduating from the Advanced course, studentscan remain affiliated with the school by paying a "membership"fee of approximately 10,000 yen per year. Some may continueon to get teaching certificates.

The school holds an annual exhibition of quilts made by theheadmaster, the instructors, the students, and the membersduring the year. Because of the large number of students, acommittee composed of the instructors selects the quilts to beexhibited. •

In order to promote the style and methodology practiced atthe Iemoto school, it licenses franchise schools. Franchiseschools are set up as fabric stores with classroom facilities forquilting classes. Each franchisee is given a territory, and she canteach and sell quilt-related products free from competition fromother franchises. To become an owner of a franchise school,a student must take an additional course above and beyond theinstructor course, pay a fee of approximately 500,000 yen, andagree to purchase a specified amount of fabrics and other quilt-related material from a company associated with the school.(The headmaster is also the president of this company.)

All franchise schools must teach the same courses as thosetaught at the head school. They may award various certificatesof completion, which are issued by the head school. Sixtypercent of the certificate fee goes to the head school. Onereason for the popularity of the school and its franchisedschools is transferable credits; that is, students can get credit atthe head school for courses taken at a franchise school and viceversa. There are currently over 60 Iemoto franchise schoolsthroughout Japan.

In addition to the franchising arrangement, the school awards(or sells) a status called "partners." Partners can teach the Basiccourse anywhere in the country without a commitment to storeownership. The school also runs correspondence courses sopeople in remote areas can learn to quilt. Students are mailedtext books and instructions on how to make a quilt block or

small quilted items. A completed project is mailed back to theschool for critique. These correspondence courses focus primarilyon sewing methods and techniques.'

We described this school in some detail not only becauseit is one of the biggest and the most popular quilting schoolsin Japan today, but because many of the other large quiltingschools are run in a similar manner. Over three thousandstudents are registered in the Iemoto school system, includingthe franchise schools and partner classes. The annual incomeof the school, including the income from the associated companyselling fabrics and notions, is estimated to be between three tofive hundred million yen.

The Iemoto school's organizational structure is veryhierarchical, with a propagation of teachers and students downthe branches of the hierarchy and the fees moving back towardsthe head school. As in the traditional Iemoto system used inflower arranging and traditional dance schools, the schoolteaches and propagates an identifiable style of quilts andconstruction techniques.

Example 2: An apprenticeship-oriented schoolThe second example, which we will call the "apprentice"

school, is very popular among the beginner students. In additionto the school, the headmaster owns a large quilting supplystore. She is a quilter well-known for her contemporary stylequilts. She is also an author of a popular how-to quilt bookwhich is used extensively in her school.

The entrance fee to the apprentice school is 20,000 yen andthe tuition is 30,000 yen every six months. The classes meettwice a week, and the courses follow a fixed pattern based ona text book written by the headmaster. In this school, no creditis given for courses taken at other schools. Thus, regardless ofher experience level, a new student must start in the beginnerclass. For the first five years, the students take courses frominstructors who are former students of the school. A certificateis awarded after the completion of five years of study.

The students get the opportunity to meet with the headmasterto discuss their work only after they have been studying at theschool for four to five years. Certified students continue to learnthe art of quilting by apprenticing with the instructor or theheadmaster. The headmaster designs her own quilts, but mostof the work is executed by her apprentices and the instructors.

An exhibition of new quilts made by the headmaster and theinstructors is held annually. Certified students may enter theirquilts in the exhibit after paying an "approval" fee and gettinga nod of approval.

The apprentice school follows a pattern reminiscent of theold painting and craft schools in which apprentices learned tocopy the master's style exactly, not unlike the European guildsystem. There, in many instances, the apprentices' productswere signed with the master's name and their work wasindistinguishable from the master's work.

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age 4 page 4

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A Glimpse of the Japanese Quilting Community: The Influence of Quilting Schoolscontinued from page 3

Example 3: A school with individualized instructionThere are some schools and groups, though not many, that

are organized to encourage the development of individualtastes and styles. In our final example the headmaster meetswith a number of small groups in which the students may beat different skill levels. With an assistant, the headmaster givesindividual lessons and allows each student to progress at herown pace. The headmaster is a well-known quilter and authorwho believes in encouraging creativity along with teaching thebasic skills in sewing and quilting.

The entrance fee is 20,000 yen with a monthly fee of 7,000yen. Each student group meets twice a month, once with theheadmaster and once with an instructor, for three years. In thefourth year the students meet once a month. No certificate isawarded, and the classes have a collegial atmosphere.

In the annual exhibit held by this school, all quilts completedby the headmaster and all the students and instructors areexhibited. These exhibits come closest to the American quiltshows in the variety of styles and skill levels of the quiltsexhibited. The quilts made by students of the individual schooland its headmaster are winning recognition at internationalshows where they are seen as equals to quilts made in othercountries.

Example 4: Craft schoolsIn addition to the quilting schools, there are many large craft

schools that offer quilting courses. These courses are organizedin much the same manner as the Iemoto school. There are,however, fewer rigidly identifiable styles associated with thecraft schools; and they focus more on sewing skills and basicquilting techniques. Students to whom quilting becomes morethan a passing hobby will move on to one of the better knownquilting schools.

ConclusionAlthough quilting is essentially an American institution, it has

become a popular activity in Japan, spawning new businessesthat continue to grow. The Iemoto system of school pervadesthe quilting community. It is one of the many manifestations ofthe hierarchical pattern of relationships based on the Ie, orhousehold, structure that exists whenever Japanese organizethemselves into a group. A strong superior-subordinaterelationship reminiscent of the feudal bond between lord andfollower continues to prevail.

The quilting schools and groups form a sort of in-group forthose who participate in them. As a member of a group awoman can both establish a self-identity and find a means ofself expression. The strong influence of the Iemoto system,however, has its downside. Thomas Havens made the followingobservation: "Students are obliged to perpetuate the teacher'sapproach and may not switch to another school or evenanother instructor in the same school. For their part, teachers

reward their pupil's loyalty by patronizing them. The result isthat authority is an even more important attribute than skill.. .[Schools] grant licenses and certificates at regular intervals, notnecessarily to recognize artistic achievement but to rewardlongevity with symbols of membership in the group." [7]

Fortunately, the emergence of schools and groups such asthe "individual" type in Example 3 are serving to counteract thisunfortunate tendency in the quilting community. It remains tobe seen if Japanese quilters can move away from the traditionalpattern of the Iemoto system and emerge as independent,creative quiltmakers.

Penny Nii, who was born in Japan and educated in the

United States, was until 1993 a Senior Research Scientist in the

Computer Science Department at Stanford University, doing

research in artificial intelligence. In that field she published

many articles and co-authored a book on expert systems,

software which is capable of facilitating complex, human-like

reasoning. The visual arts were always a parallel interest for

her. Penny discovered quilting in the early 1980s, and though

her research career left her with little time to make quilts, her

most recent effort was accepted for "New Faces," a juried exhi-bition of contemporary quilts organized by the American Mu-

seum of Quilts and Textiles. She is now a partner in the Leone-

Nii Gallery in Mountain View, California, which exhibits both

antique and contemporary quilts.

Shizuko Kuroha is a quiltmaker, author, and teacher in her

native Japan. She discovered quilting during a two-year stay in

Bethesda, Maryland, from 1975-1976. Upon her return to

Japan, she founded the Kuroha Quilt Circle, which has now an

enrollment of 200 students in seven Japanese cities. Her own

quilts, which characteristically are made from antique, indigo-

dyed Japanese fabric, were first seen in the United States at an

exhibition, "Indigo," organized by the Nippon Club in New York

City in 1985. In 1989 she was invited to exhibit her circle'swork at the Quilt Festival in New York, sponsored by the

Museum of American Folk Art. Since then her quilts have beenextensively exhibited internationally, notably at the "Feeling

1990" festival in the Netherlands, where her quilt won the 'Most

Artistic" award, and in 1992 in South Korea and Taiwan. In

1993 she was invited to lecture and teach at the Indianapolis

Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, in conjunction with an

exhibition of Japanese quilts.

The Quilt Journal Page 4 Volume 2, Number 2 1993

THE QUILT PROJECT INFORMATION

Conference Lectures Ordering Information

The Kentucky Quilt Project, Inc., is pleased to announcepublication of the collected working papers of the 1992 Lou-

isville Celebrates the American Quilt conferences. The follow-ing lectures, edited from the conferences transcripts, are in-cluded:

1. Since Kentucky: Surveying State Quilts 1981-1991.2. Directions in Quilt Scholarship.3. Bibliography Conference.4. The African-American and the American Quilt.5. Quilts and Collections - Private, Public and Corporate.

The exhibitions, conferences, lectures and gatherings whichcomprised the Celebration addressed issues of concern to allinterested in quilts here and abroad and helped establish goals,priorities and methods for the coming decades of quilt studyand appreciation. The conferences were planned to furtherquilt scholarship in specific areas, and to bring together scholarswho might create new dialogues about quilts and help clarifyscholarly aims and standards in the field.

The collection will be available to members of The Quilt Projectat an introductory price of $35.00 plus $3.75 shipping/handling. Pre-

paid orders will be accepted until January 15, 1994. (Holiday giftcards can be arranged.) Delivery will be within six weeks afterJanuary 15, 1994. After January 15, 1994, the price is $52.00 plus$3.75 shipping/handling. Orders of four or more copies, afterJanuary 15, 1994, receive a 20% discount ($41.60 each plus $3.75shipping/handling per copy).

Please send your orders to The Kentucky Quilt Project, Inc.,P.O. Box 6251, Louisville, Kentucky 40206. Visa/MasterCardaccepted. Phone: 502-587-6721. Fax: 502-897-3819.

The Quilt Journal Page 5 Volume 2, Number 2 1993

Quilt and Fabric Stylings of theLater Twentieth Century

by Jeffrey Gutcheon

The relationship between the design characteristics — the"look" — of the quilts of a given era and that period's available

and popular materials has been much noted but little studied.One reason for this is the range of scholarship required in a

number of fields, not all related, to make any sort of reasonable

judgments in the matter. More, many seemingly find it easier

to apply the skills needed to see and understand those

relationships to the work of the past than that of the present,

an example of a psychological predilection intruding on a

process which logically should have no temporal boundaries.

Jeffrey Gutcheon has been involved in the late 20th century's

quilt revival since its inception, first as artist and quiltmaker,

then as designer and producer of materials specifically

conceived for the quiltmaker, and as a perceptive columnist,

quilts and materials his subject matter. His training as

architect and designer gave him skills additional to hisnatural ones to bring to his quilts and materials. His early

and continuing involvement in the commercial world of quilt

kit and cloth production gave him a particular knowledge of

that industry's business and aesthetic history.

In the article which follows, he considers the interrelated

effects of textile industry trends and practices and the schools,

styles and fabric choices of contemporary quilt making. Mr.

Gutcheon discusses also the effects of these on modern quilt

aesthetics.

—Editors' Note

The great quiltmaking revival of the late 20th century is a rollinghistorical event of global dimensions. Quilting is being done ata furious pace from Taipei to Norway, from the Klondike toCapetown, and its momentum shows no signs of slackening. Wemight, therefore, have reasonable expectations of seeing it sailon into the next millennium, urged along by growing consumerdemand and brisk trade winds. This huge outpouring of quiltedarticles will eventually be compared historically to that of thepost-Civil War period, commonly thought of as the "Victorian"era, roughly a century ago. Each era's quilts have, of course,visual characteristics which help us date and evaluate them. Thisis as true for the quilts of the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s as it is forearlier work. The quilts of the 1990s are now developing thecharacteristic look by which we will know and evaluate them indecades to come. Describing that look, and its evolution inAmerica, is the purpose of this article.

The genesis of our vast legacy of post-Civil War quilts seemsrelatively uncomplicated. The Reconstruction period, thecompletion of coast-to-coast rail hookups, the rapid developmentof advanced textile printing technology in the east, and the

western expansion of the American frontier, were roughlysimultaneous occurrences. Freed by resolution of the conflict,Americans turned their creative energies to the pursuit of abetter life. In the forty years that followed, they produced whathas been called by many our "Golden Age." Quiltmaking,which was already well established in the Eastern states,flourished elsewhere, one of the artifacts of an optimisticoutlook based on domestic order, economic growth, andbroadening cultural horizons.

It is interesting that another war a century later, the Vietnamcivil conflict, brought about, as had the Civil War, an Americannational crisis. Though remote from us geographically, like theearlier conflict, it highlighted and intensified many divisions inAmerican life. When those hostilities finally ended, a nationalcampaign to heal the divisiveness and restore America's selfesteem was undertaken ad hoc by the communications media.A rallying date was already at hand: the American Bicentennialyear, 1976.

Five years earlier, the quiltmaking communities' self awarenesshad been given a positive jolt, as well as tremendous validation,by the exhibition, "Abstract Design in American Quilts," mountedin New York City at the Whitney Museum in July, 1971, bycollectors Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof. This nowlegendary exhibition subsequently traveled the country forseveral years under the aegis of the Smithsonian Institution. Thearticles and reviews by such respected art critics as HiltonKramer of the New York Times who attended it, performed amiracle for quilts and quiltmaking by bringing them to theattention of previously unexposed millions. This exhibition andthose which derived from it were seen around the world. Alove affair between the media and the quilt was firmly established.The strong push given quiltmaking by the Whitney exhibitionhelped promote the craft among those who had not done itbefore. This was then furthered by the phenomenal publicityabout quilts generated throughout our popular culture beforeand after the Bicentennial year.1 I am referring, for example,to the Meredith Corporation's (Better Homes and Gardens) CraftClub, which sent out several mailings of a million each offeringa small quilt kit project; and the Lane Publications (SunsetMagazine, circulation 2 million per month) offering of a slim,non-threatening, how-to-quilt book for $2.95. These micro-marketing events and others like them, so lowered the thresholdof participation in quiltmaking that thousands of new quiltmakerswere created.

In the post-Vietnam rush to unearth images in our past thatengendered universal good feeling, the quilt's long-establishedstatus as national icon was furthered. Quilts were emblematicof those things Americans valued about themselves, theircreativity, industriousness, thrift, and, of course, devotion to

The Quilt Journal Page 6 Volume 2, Number 2 1993

family. Virtually every magazine that could stretch its content farenough published at least one issue with a quilt on the cover.Virtually every movie with a bedroom set showed a quilt, foldedat the bottom of a bed or spread upon it, even if inappropriateto the rest of the set's decor. Quilting was hot copy.

I am not in any way suggesting that until the 1970s Americanquiltmaking was dormant. Quite the opposite is true. Traditionalquiltmaking had never ended. In many communities it waspassed from generation to generation as a domestic art. And bythe 1970s contemporary quilting was already well established.People like Molly Upton, Nancy Halpern, Michael James andNancy Crow, who had studio backgrounds and viewedthemselves as artists, were working in the quilting medium. Infact, these two quiltmaking communities, the traditional and the"contemporary," were in touch with each other. They exchangedteachings respectfully and had a forum for their interest inQuilter's Newsletter Magazine, which by 1975 had a paidcirculation of 35,000.

All of them needed fabric, and there was little available thatlooked much like that in the now ubiquitous magazine photosof late 19th century quilts. The emphasis in retail fabric shopsat this time was on supplying the price-conscious homemakerwith fabrics for herself and her family's apparel; and theemphasis in apparel (besides the wools, silks and linings, etc.)was on labor-saving, dirt-resistant, no-iron, easy-care, drip-drycotton substitutes with varying amounts of polyester in them.Traditional quilters of the early 1970s, by the way, had noobjection to these fabrics, since part of the quilt tradition wasto use whatever materials came to hand. Similarly, the"contemporary" quiltmakers were more focused on the pattern,color, and texture of fabrics than on the fiber content, relyingon patience and craft technique to overcome working difficulties.

The possibility of a sudden and enormous demand forcotton fabrics with a variety of small patterns and colors, to beused in a craft application, was either laughable or unthinkableto the denizens of the textile industry on the east coast. Theircherished belief was that fabric existed for the purpose ofmaking clothing; or perhaps, if you pushed it, for upholstery(clothing for furniture) and draperies (clothing for windows).From this perspective, calicos were seen as a fashion item witha dependable, if limited, range, intended mainly for women'ssportswear and children's dresses. Offshoots of these calicolines from a handful of companies were marketed over thecounter at department stores like Sears, Penney's, Macy's,Bloomingdales, and Zayre's. Calicos were also available atHancock, and, as a concession to their customers, at CalicoCorners Home Decorating Shops.

Calicos circa 1975 were mostly modest offerings of tiny budflowers spread on clean fields of colors that changed predictably

with the seasons: navy, red, and white in fall/winter, pastel tintsin spring/summer. The largest group emerged yearly from M.Lowenstein Co.; the most elegant and various from Henry Glass& Co. as Peter Pan Fabrics; the only exclusively cotton group (andthe one probably remembered with the most fondness by quilters)was Ely Walker's 31 colorways on "Quadriga Cloth." ConcordFabrics had a small "Traditional" cotton group with a suburbandesign and color range, and Springs Mills, along with V.I.P., filledout the market with emphases on cotton-polyester cloth.

The devotion to polyester by manufacturers at the timerequires some explication (popular taste has since turned againstit). Like Rayon before it, polyester staple represented an insurancepolicy for the makers against unpredictable shortages of cottonby cutting roughly in half the amount needed for dressweightcloth. Made in 50%-50% poly-cotton blends, "blended" fabricshad other attractive qualities, too — a slicker hand, a betterdrape, and the tendency to release dirt easily. Unfortunately,blends also released pigments and rapidogen colors moreeasily, washing out or fading rapidly in daylight. Too, theypilled in ordinary use, becoming dingy with repeated washing/drying, and were ultimately judged less comfortable to wear;the polyester/cotton blends did not "breathe" as well as 100%cotton cloth.

The true demise of the polyester cloth fetish occurred in 1975,however, when the public declined to endorse polyester double-knit leisurewear as a style, refusing to go "disco." A largenumber of full-line retail fabric shops which had made acommitment to double-knits went out of business, creatingsuddenly a sizable breach in the supply system which linkedfabric producers to the home-sewing customer. By the end of1976, as the quilt Americana juggernaut gathered momentum,the "quilt shop" had begun to move into this vacuum, fosteringand encouraging a growing interest in fabrics nationwide on thepart of both new and old quilters. The retail fabric industry wasreverting to pre-synthetic fabrics, those made entirely of cotton.It was a pithy moment, one which gave quiltmaking increasedvisibility even as it unwittingly imposed creative restrictions.

The need to invent a positive nationalism for the 1976Bicentennial (following our hang-dog departure from Vietnamand the near-disgrace of the American presidency) helpeddefine a new decorating style. Holdover hippies from the 1960sand new "conservatives" from the rising sunbelt states joinedmiddle Americans everywhere in the embrace of (what else)the "country style." More a marketing event than an actualstyle, it amalgamated in one time frame antique pine "earlyAmerican" furniture, traditional crafts, pioneer femininity,Victorian decor, and country music from Appalachia to LosAngeles. Thus the calico granny dresses popularized byhippiedom a decade earlier were now embraced by suburban

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Quilt and Fabric Stylings of the Later Twentieth Centurycontinued from page 7

matrons. The eclectic patchwork interiors of Marin Countybecame those of heartland America. And the flamboyant Victorianexcesses of Janis Joplin were redeemed by the virtuousfrontierswoman aspect of Emmylou Harris singing songs ofdesperate love, drunkenness, and spirituals in equal measure,while dressed in high-buttoned small print blouses. Americawas awash with "instant old-timey," as folk purists called it, andquiltmaking had caught the wave.

The gulf between supply and demand in American businessis seldom as large, or seldom goes unrecognized so long, asthat which existed between fabric producers of New York andthe quilting public in the late 1970s. While the Fashion Avenuemavens decried the polyester debacle, a small but growingarmy of privately financed quiltshop entrepreneurs were combingthe world for 100% cotton fabrics that could reproduce the lookof those in late 19th century quilts — with an emphasis on theword "look." Though quiltshops embraced the notion thatquiltmakers were creative people, a large part of their salespitch was quite clearly "tradition" and domestic virtue. Tradition,in turn, carried with it a sense of the durable, the lasting, andthe time-honored, all of which had a built-in stylistic bias:quilters were looking for prints with finely wrought detail incolorations that appeared, though brand new, to be 100 yearsold; in other words, in ecru, brown, or "dusty" tints.

Such fabrics, domestically printed with pigment dyes, wereavailable, but not widely so. Most manufacturers had a small,conservative part of their print line designed for the upscalewoman. To protect their primary customers, the garment makers,these fabrics were not put into retail circulation. To give thehomemaker access to the same fabrics featured in new clothingwould have been a breach of business ethics within the textileindustry. Even jobbers of factory and designer close-outs wereencouraged to sell their goods in South America and thePhilippines to keep them out of the American market.

In a cyclical industry, however, no manufacturer wished toforego the opportunity inherent in a growing demand for craftmaterials, one that might make it possible to sell more fabrics atbetter prices. As a result a back-door supply network, whichfunneled appropriate cotton materials to retailers in the form offirst-quality "seconds" and prints which were unsuccessful in theclothing market, slowly formed. Quilters gobbled this materialup. By 1979 enough quilting demand was visible for severalmajor producers - Concord Fabrics, Peter Pan, and V.I.P. - tocommit resources to style entries aimed primarily at quiltmakers.Also in that year, Karey Bresenhan, owner of Great Expectationsquilt shop in Houston, Texas, felt the consumer demand potentialof the fledgling quilt industry was great enough to risk puttingon the first wholesale Quilt Market,2 which followed her successfulQuilt Festival show. Thereafter, quilting fabric supply and demandmarched along in lockstep for at least another ten years.

The huge success of quiltmaking marketed in the "traditional"design forms became, in and of itself, a main deterrent to the

ongoing stylistic development of the late 20th century quilt. Itcountered the idea central to the Holstein - van der Hoofexhibition of 1971, that artistic concepts and notions of domesticcraft had once been, and could be, essentially unified. Evidently,earlier quiltmakers considered themselves "contemporary" nomatter what style they used. The numbers of new quiltmakersin the later 20th century devoted to 19th century quilt styles faroutweighed, and were even hostile to, those pursuing"contemporary" design ideas. Though contemporary quiltmakersentered the quilting public's consciousness beginning in 1979through Nancy Crow's Quilt National exhibitions andpublications, their most prominent members made a costlytactical error by emphasizing the use of plain colors almostexclusively as the quilt "artist's" substitute for paint. Thus, when"art" quiltmaking went big time in 1979 it contained a faultyaesthetic premise created by its own successfulcommercialization. Michael James, Nancy Crow, and YvonnePorcella, the most widely known and established of thecontemporary school, taught "thou shalt not use prints." Evengreater celebrity attached to Jinny Beyer, whose "Ray of Light"design, winner of the 1979 Good Housekeeping national contest,became the most widely publicized quilt in history. Ms. Beyerfurther rose to prominence through her appearance as featuredspeaker at the 1979 Continental Quilt Congress. She became thechampion of the traditionalists by teaching "Thou shalt use onlyprints" in her book Patchwork Patterns. This prepared the wayfor her to become the first quiltmaker with a signature line ofcotton prints designed specifically for quilting. These wereproduced first by the V.I.P. company in 1982-83, and thereafterand until the present, by RJR Fashion Fabrics. The list of suchsignature lines is now quite long and it is growing rapidly.

In my opinion, Jinny Beyer's overwhelming successperpetuated, as a marketing tool, the idea of contemporaryquilts as re-creations of those of an earlier age. Overshadowedby the sheer volume of "traditionalist" publicity, contemporaryquiltmakers pursued the notion of art quilts into the 1980s byforming alliances with the other fiber arts, the studio craftmovement, and feminism. These alliances produced work whichkept before the quiltmaking public a vision of brighter, morecomplex color work and up-to-date design concepts not set inthe 19th century. When by 1983-4 other fabric manufacturersbased on the west coast, and printing mainly in Japan, turnedto the burgeoning quilt market for new customers, they had amuch wider stylistic target at which to aim. They also broughta new set of production parameters to the game: the use offiber reactive dyestuffs and advanced screen printing techniquesinvolving nine to 14 separate color positions (compared to themaximum of seven roller positions used by domestic producerson the east coast).

Screen prints and fiber reactive dyes would not by themselvestell the story of many late 20th century quilt fabrics. Referenceneed also to be made to the attitude toward fabric production

of the companies now producing lines in the Orient, (includingKorea, China, and Asia Minor as well as Japan). 3 I wouldcharacterize that attitude as competitively innovative from botha design and technical point of view and utterly withoutcondescension to the customer. While a certain percentage oftoday's cotton print design reflects 19th century stylingmodernized, the best of them embody design conceptsdeveloped during the 20th century.

In short, late 20th century quilts will reflect the choices ofa competitive fabric industry as did their forebearers of acentury ago. Unlike the commercial considerations of the late19th century, however, those forced by participating quiltersand quilt business people themselves will affect style. Futurehistorians will thus need to establish a "works of commerce"category of judgment, along with "works of art" and "works ofdomestic craft." The retail market for cotton prints is socrowded with producers today that there is a knock-em-downslugfest to create the most fantastic product. The producers, fortheir part, once again draw no distinction between the retailand the manufacturing customer. Quiltmakers, who are thebeneficiaries of this process, have responded positively to theoutpouring of magnificent prints, though it remains to be seenhow this process can continue.

A century hence, the multi-screen oriental-made prints will beeasily recognizable because of the general cleanliness andbrightness — perhaps "presence" would be a better word — oftheir color and the number of colors used per print. They willalso be easy to identify because of their use of photo processesand other partial-tone techniques which screens permit; and fortheir feeling of a full spectrum of colors. Finally, the Japanesehave a deep reverence for textiles, a superb textile designtradition, and a craft tradition which celebrates significantcraftspeople as national treasures. Since Japanese quiltmakerswere, in the mid-1970s, among the first outside the United Statesto embrace American style patchwork quiltmaking, it seems onlyfitting that they should be adding their sensibilities to whatAmericans, and quiltmakers worldwide, are making today.

Jeffrey Gutcheon earned a B.A. from Amherst College and a

B. Arch. from MIT where he taught design in the late 1960s

and early 1970s. Mr. Gutcheon first became interested in quilts

as a potential art form, "an opportunity to work with pattern

and color," and began designing and making quilts in 1971.

One of his early works, "Card Tricks," was published in 1971 in

McCall's Needlework and Craft magazine. In 1975 he founded

Gutcheon Patchworks, Inc., which marketed quilt kits of his

design. In 1982 his book Diamond Patchwork was published,

and in the next year he founded The American Classic

Line(TM) of all-cotton fabrics. His column "Not for Shopkeepers

Only" has appeared since 1982 in Quilter's NewsletterMagazine. He is the former President of the Board of Trustees of

the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and continues to serve

the school as an advisory trustee. His talents extend also to

music; he has played jazz and rock piano professionally, has

had two books on rock piano technique published, and is one of

the authors of the Broadway show, "Ain't Misbehavin'!"

"Lapptacken en Kulturskatt" ("The Quilt: ACultural Treasure"): An Exhibition Review

by Julie Silber

Quilt curator, historian and lecturer Julie Silber was one of

three guest curators chosen to select works for the exhibition,

"Lapptacken en Kulturskatt," mounted in the Liljevalchs

Konsthall, Stockholm this past summer. We asked her to give us

her impressions of the exhibition, and these follow this

introduction.

The exhibition included quilts from four countries, Sweden,

England, Wales and the United States. Sweden's representation

was the largest single group, 142 quilts, a significant step in

investigating that country's quilting tradition. Great Britain

alone among European nations had until recently given its

quilting tradition serious attention. Sweden with this exhibition

joins Holland (See The Quilt Journal, Volume 1, Number 1,

1992, "A New World in the Old: European Quilt Scholarship.")

in what will be a growing trend internationally to survey

quilting history. There was no attempt made by the organizers of

this exhibition to satisfy an overall theme, or to draw specific

thematic conclusions from the material shown. However, as

more such international exhibitions are mounted, we will havethe opportunity to compare different traditions. It is axiomatic

that significant insights will result.

—Editors' Note

In June of 1992, I received an invitation to participate in a quiltexhibition quite unlike any other I had known. As curator ofthe 350 antique Amish quilts once held by Esprit De Corp. in SanFrancisco, I was asked to choose twelve pieces to be includedin a large exhibition of quilts from several nations, "Lapptackenen Kulturskatt" ("The Quilt: A Cultural Treasure") to be held inStockholm the following year (June 11 - September 5, 1993).

I was intrigued: quilts from "several nations," includingSweden? I had not known old Swedish quilts existed, and itsounded as if there would be numerous examples. Additionally,my exposure to British quilts, which were to be included, hadbeen limited to examples I had seen pictured in several booksand a few I had actually examined. What was this exhibitionto be? As it turned out, it was intellectually very exciting,visually beautiful, ultimately both informative and inspiring.

The exhibition was conceived and organized by Asa Wettre,an independent Swedish quilt researcher and curator, andPhilippe Legros, First Curator at Liljevalchs Konsthall inStockholm. Liljevalchs is Stockholm's city art gallery, a hand-some structure built in 1919 specifically for temporary exhibi-tions.

The Swedes, along with other Europeans, have begun to

explore their own quilt traditions. As part of their search, theychose to look at their own older quilts, but also at those ofother nations. "Lapptacken en Kulturskatt" featured antiquequilts from Sweden, England, Wales and America, includingAmish quilts. In addition, there was a large display of contem-porary Swedish quilts and several large sections of the AIDSQuilt. To my knowledge, this is the first major exhibition toinclude older quilts from a number of nations and cultures.

The show was also unusual in that it brought together guestcurators with different agendas. The three of us were given agreat deal of sovereignty over our particular show areas; wechose the objects from our collections and designed our ownspaces. Working separately from floor plans, we were not intouch with one another until we met for the installation. Eachwas in contact with Philippe Legros at Liljevalchs, whose taskit was to oversee the complex project and orchestrate thevarieties of quilts and other objects, accommodating to diversecuratorial styles.

I designed my room to be especially spare. The twelve examplesof Lancaster County Amish quilts were evenly spaced on mattewhite walls, accompanied only by unobtrusive identificationlabels and brief interpretive comments. In displaying Amishquilts alone, I hoped the room would resonate with theiressential qualities: elegance, strength, drama and restraint.

Londoner Ron Simpson added dimension to his rooms byadding a few objects (such as sewing tools, traditional Welshcostume, and a Bible printed in the Welsh language) in glasscases. He also installed large photomurals on walls next tosome of the quilts. Vivid images of Welsh women, families,sewing machines, farms and factories helped establish a broadersocial and temporal context for the quilts and their makers.

Ma Wettre went further in establishing a context for her vastcollection of antique Swedish quilts. She designed warm, invitingspaces by combining the quilts with familiar items and creating"homey" vignettes. Quilts displayed flat on the walls wereaccompanied by cases brimming with sewing materials (tools,scraps, unfinished blocks), letters and diaries and familyphotographs. Asa arranged cozy groupings with quilts displayedon beds, cribs and couches and combined with chairs, dollhouses,rugs and such.

Although our curatorial styles differed, the three of us hadsome things in common. First, of course, we shared a deep andenthusiastic passion for textiles. It was also clear that we all seequilts not only as beautiful objects, but equally as socialdocuments, "maps" of women's lives. Additionally, each of ushas a special fondness for everyday, utilitarian pieces, especially

those with strong graphic impact. Many curators select only"outstanding" examples of workmanship, the most elaborateand the fanciest quilts, for their shows. It was refreshing todiscover that each of us found as much significance, beauty,and power in plain quilts as in fancier works.

When I was asked to bring twelve to fourteen examples ofAmish quilts, I assumed that each of the five or six cultureswould be equally represented by approximately the samenumber of quilts. It was, however, apparently not the intentionof the organizers to do a numerically representative exhibition.(And it seems I was the only one of the guest curators whoattempted to do a "survey," a representative sampling of quiltsintended to demonstrate those things which best define LancasterAmish quilts.) Here is a breakdown by categories of the quiltsin the exhibition:

Antique Swedish 142Contemporary Swedish 56Antique English 12Antique Welsh 34Antique American 15Antique Amish 12AIDS Quilt Panels 72Other Swedish (doll quilts, etc.) 40

Quilts were organized in different rooms by national or culturalorigin. In some instances, further distinctions were made by eraand style of quilt. Rooms led gracefully one into the next,helped by the especially wide openings between them.

I would like to walk you through the exhibition as Iexperienced it. The large entry room was filled with a colorfulgroup of Swedish quilts of all shapes and sizes. As with theJapanese, French, and Dutch, the Swedes' current interest inquiltmaking has apparently been fueled by considerable recentexposure to American quilts. The influence is evident; in general,the Swedes have only begun to experiment with and expandupon our patchwork traditions and quilting techniques.

The next room was devoted to appoximately half of RonSimpson's antique Welsh quilts. Ron's quilts filled three rooms(two of antique Welsh quilts, one of English), though thespaces were not all contiguous. He chose to organize his twoWelsh rooms by types of quilts. This first one held sixteen orseventeen (mostly) wool, "rough and ready," turn-of-the-centurypieces which I found exceptionally exciting. Simple geometricpiecework in rich, dramatic colors was embellished withunexpectedly intricate quilting. Constructed primarily in theone-patch, central medallion or "strippy" (bars) format, these

quilts glowed with extraordinary intensity and visual power.Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Amish quilts (our twelve

examples) filled the adjoining room. These quilts were madeby the women of that tightly-knit religious community fromabout 1870 to 1960 and, intriguingly, they bore some strikingsimilarities to Welsh wool quilts. Typically square, the Amishquilts are pieced of large fields of solid colored wools, often injewel-like tones. Certain aspects of the quilts providecounterbalancing tensions: elaborate and often curvilinear quiltingseen against the simplicity of the large pieced format, and lush,saturated colors against the sharp angles of the starkly geometricpatchwork. Amish women chose from only a handful oftraditional designs, and I decided to display a few examples ofeach of them: Center Square, Diamond, Bars, Sunshine andShadow, and Double Nine-patch.

Ron Simpson's second Welsh room followed. Here we sawexamples of more sophisticated urban quilts, made in Walesbetween 1800 and 1930. Except for a few distinctively Welshquilting patterns, these quilts were generally indistinguishablefrom their contemporary urban English cousins. Thus there wereearly examples of central medallion-style cotton quilts and one-patch types (typically hexagon and Baby's Blocks); also exhibitedhere were pieced calico quilts and red/green floral appliquésfrom the turn of this century. In one piece, a whole cloth, solidcolored ruffled quilt made in the 1930s, we saw the Welshtradition of highly elaborate quilting carried into this century.

The adjoining "English" room had quilts which were verysimilar to the Welsh, but it included also several Victorian-eracrazy quilts. The relatively small sampling (also from RonSimpson's collections) did, however, include a few examples ofNorth Country-style utilitarian pieces which were especiallyinteresting to me. Like the country Welsh pieces, they were notselfconscious, but were straight-forward, and visually powerful.These turn-of-the-century works are typically made of suchsensible, hard wearing materials as suiting fabrics and flannels.Central medallion style and bars type ("strippy") formatspredominate.

In asking an English and a Swedish collector to lend examplesof American quilts, the coordinators of the exhibit made aproblematical decision. Although visually interesting and varied,the approximately fifteen examples the two collectors chose forthe next room were not typical or generally representative. Asa student of American quilts, I knew that it would have beenimpossible to draw valid general conclusions about Americanquilts from this group.

The next three rooms were devoted to Swedish quilts madecontinued on page 12

"Lapptacken en Kulturskatt" ("The Quilt: A Cultural Treasure"): An Exhibition Reviewcontinued from page 11

before 1950. The first of these had only a few pieces, most ofthem quite early and borrowed from Swedish museums. Lowlighting and protective display apparatus contributed to aformal, old fashioned "museum-like" feeling. Dating from thelate 18th century to around 1850, these quilts were wool or felt,primarily lap size quilts, cushion covers and bench covers.

Asa Wettre's collection of old quilts made in Sweden wasastonishing to me: Asa has single-handedly gathered nearly twohundred examples from all over Sweden in the past six orseven years. My surprise at seeing so many Swedish examplesalerted me to some of my narrow thinking about quilts. Irealized that I have had the impression that European quiltsexist but are very rare. When I had the opportunity to standbefore the abundance of material this exhibition offered, Iknew that my assumptions had to be questioned. The picturewas larger than I had imagined. In recent years scholars havebegun to map connections, especially design heritages andcultural links, among American and English quilts, those fromnative American and African cultures. Although it is not clearhow significant the large number of so many Swedish quiltswas to the bigger picture (was it possible that the 150 oldSwedish quilts I was seeing were the only ones ever made?),I definitely experienced a shift in my perspective. Suddenly,there were many new questions.

Generally, I was unable to distinguish these later Swedishquilts (most dating from about 1880-1950) from American utilityquilts of the period. However, I had a sense of some overalldifferences: Swedish quilts seemed typically smaller, and thedesigns were more centrally focused than their Americancounterparts. Although there were a few examples of fancy,Victorian crazy quilts, simple, cotton patchwork quilts dominated.Numerous examples of a few patchwork designs wererepresented: the windmill or hourglass types, one-patches, andan extraordinary number of log cabins.

Most of the remaining rooms had more examples ofcontemporary Swedish quilts, all of which were similar to thequilts in the first room described.

One large room, however, was devoted to the AIDS quilt.Seventy-two individual panels hung proudly on the walls andwere laid flat on platforms in a space also occupied by thegallery's bookstore and gift shop. Bodil Sjostrom, the Swedishcoordinator for this section, worked closely with The NamesProject in San Francisco to borrow sections of the Quilt containingpanels memorializing Swedes who have died of AIDS. I wasmoved to see once again how affecting, poignant andtransformative this remarkable piece is to the people who viewit, no matter where in the world.

"Lapptacken en Kulturskatt," a grand show in its numbers,had ultimately an intimate, accessible quality. The layout waslike a good quilt, successful in its individual units as well as inthe multiple ways they related to one another. I particularlyappreciated the variety of contextual formats and the relational

interplay of elements throughout the exhibit. The many levelsof meaning in quilts — practical, social, ritual, aesthetic, etc. —were suggested or revealed through accompanying wall text,or the manner in which a quilt was displayed (on a bed, onthe wall), or through its association with other materials.

The show was a wonderful experience for me personally.I had the opportunity to work collaboratively with Europeantextile experts, and to participate in a project which collectivelybroadened our knowledge of quiltmaking in a multiculturalcontext.

Although the exhibition was in some ways uneven (and forme frustrating in that all of the text was in Swedish), it was anambitious and important project, bringing together for the firsttime a diversity of cultural materials to compare, study, andenjoy. This sort of exhibition is both exciting and provocative.We need more like it, preferably with clearer underlyingintentions and, perhaps, more representative cultural balance.Such projects increase our awareness of other world quiltingtraditions and the work of other scholars; through these we willultimately understand more of our own tradition and its placewithin a larger context.

Julie Silber graduated with a BA in American History from

the University of Michigan in 1969. For the last twelve years,

she has served as curator of the Esprit Quilt Collection. Julie has

written and lectured widely on the subject of Amish quilts. With

Pat Ferrero, Julie co-produced the films, "Quilts in Women's

Lives," and "Hearts and Hands." She is co-author of the book

Hearts and Hands, The Influence of Women and Quilts onAmerican Society, and of Amish: The Art of the Quilt.Exhibitions she has curated include "Quilts in Women's Lives,"

"American Quilts: A Handmade Legacy," and "Amish: The Art

of the Quilt." Julie is currently curating traveling exhibitions of

Amish and other American quilts.

The Quilting of Narrative: Playful Subversionin The Robber Bridegroom

by Marjorie Ingall

The patchwork quilt has been for more than a century an

icon of American life, emblematic of a "golden age" in which

domestic virtue created orderly, tranquil, thrifty and happy

homes across the land. Long before the 19th century had ended,

quilts and quilting were accepted symbols of those qualities in

art and literature, here and abroad.

The women's movement, roughly coinciding temporally with

the quilt revival of the later twentieth century, has brought new

sensibilities to the investigation of the symbolic values of quilts

and quilting. Women artists and writers find in the subject apt

metaphors for their, and their sisters' lives, for their interaction

with American culture. Generally the use has been positive, as

metaphor for creativity and a perceived feminine way of

approaching and organizing life, though some have argued it

carries still connotations of the once-inescapable tyranny ofsewing and the rigid, sexually-determined roles of which it was

a manifestation.In the article which follows Marjorie Ingall discusses symbolic

parallels between the quiltmaking process and women's writing,

using as her central example American writer Eudora Welty's

1942 novel The Robber Bridegroom. Ms. Welty, as she points

out, was familiar with quilting, and quilts appear in other of

her novels.

—Editors' Note

I propose to illustrate the way in which quilting can be viewedas a metaphor for women's writing. Eudora Welty's The Robber

Bridegroom is a particularly apt example. In her short novel,published in 1942, Welty incorporates many different genres—fairy tales, myths, legends, ballads and biblical stories—piecemeal,without letting any one element control the narrative. Weltychops up, reorders and chooses which pieces of earlier narrativesshe wishes to use; her act of truncating and plucking fragmentsout of older contexts, giving them new meaning, is inherentlysimilar to the quilter's art. It is a way of demonstrating masteryand control of earlier sources.

The Robber Bridegroom is set in and around Mississippi'sNatchez Trace circa 1798. Mississippi still belonged to Spain; theIndians presence is waning. The novel tells the story of thecourtship of Rosamond Musgrove, beautiful daughter of an"innocent planter," and Jamie Lockhart, who is a New Orleansgentleman by day and "the bandit of the woods" by night. Eachis mistaken about the other's real identity; each mislabels andmisrepresents the other. The story itself is extremely fragmented,with resonant but ambiguous images that recall more than onegenre. And The Robber Bridegroom playfully points out its ownstructure; in addition to references to individual tales, it constantly

compares itself to a fairy tale (for instance, Welty writes, "at first,life was like fairyland"). Rosamond herself deconstructs the actof storytelling; she herself tells elaborate tales containing "lessons"that Welty labels "lies." Welty pokes fun at the notion of beinga writer, a tale teller. Isn't fiction merely a form of lying?

As a genre, the novel is extremely receptive to periodic"borrowing" from other genres. As Mikhail Bakhtin writes in The

Dialogic Imagination:

The novel parodies other genres (precisely in their role asgenres); it exposes the conventionality of their forms and

their language; it squeezes out some genres and incorporates

them into its own peculiar structure, reformulating and re-

accentuating them.'

Reformulating and re-accentuating is precisely what goes on inThe Robber Bridegroom. Welty takes bits and pieces of oldernarrative and older narrative forms and subordinates them to anew whole, one that embraces all of the old forms without beingoverly reverent about their sanctity. The amount of incorporationand adaptation in The Robber Bridegroom is extraordinarilyextensive and overt. This novel calls attention to its acts of theft;that is its point. "In The Robber Bridegroom I used fairy tales andreal folklore and historical people and everything alike andsimultaneously," said Welty in a 1977 interview. "I think it'sthere; I think it's right there —s o why shouldn't I avail myself?"2

"Everything alike and simultaneously" means that no onegenre is given more inherent weight than any other. An imagelifted from the Bible — that of Jacob wrestling with the angel, forexample — is juxtaposed with the blustering figure of Mike Fink,legendary flatboatman on the Mississippi. The timeless fairy talecharacters are juxtaposed with the time bound setting of thenovel. Welty deliberately allows the reader's awareness of theimpending history of the region — the Civil War, ante-bellum lifeand post-industrialism — to cast a shadow over the putativelyhappy ending. By chopping up scraps of various sources andgenres, shuffling and recombining them in different patterns,Welty creates a narrative pastiche that is irreverent and freewheeling;no one element is inherently more valuable than another.

Welty's seemingly incongruous stitching of many differentelements into a coherent whole can be compared to the act ofmaking a quilt. Quilting involves cutting small pieces out of largesources, incorporating the pieces into a pattern, and (often)stitching the result to a backing. According to Jean TaylorFederico's American Quilts: 1770-1880, the two most popularquilting methods during that time were "applique (the applicationof a cut fabric onto the top of the quilt) and piecing (thecombination of many small fragments of fabric to form a design)."3Welty uses both. Her various sources — different genres and, in

continued from page 13

a narrower sense, different fairy tales — are pieced into a designwithin the novel. The resulting design is appliqueed to a backingof historical time and place — the area from Natchez to NewOrleans, circa 1798.

The metaphor of quilting is appropriate for The RobberBridegroom in a number of ways. The pieces from variousgenres and specifically from various fairy tales are too small todominate the whole narrative. They are individually but one partof a pattern. As Rachel Blau DuPlessis says, "An art object may. . . be non-hierarchic, showing 'an organization of material infragments,' breaking climactic structures, making an even displayof elements over the surface with no climactic place or movement,since the materials are 'organized in many centers'." 4 The piecesare cut free from their associations and placed in a new context.For fairy tales, this means that they are cut free from theconfinement of many generations of editors, from Charles Perraultto the Grimms to Andrew Lang, all of whom served as censoring,taming and moralizing influences. Frequently, this meant silencingand civilizing the tale's heroine.

The metaphor of quilting is obviously resonant in terms ofwomen's writing in general. Elaine Showalter discusses the issueat length in her article, "Piecing and Writing." 5 She argues thatthe fragmentation of women's time is reflected in the writingthey produce.

Because of the structures and traditions of women's time, thedominant genre of American women's writing has been the shortstory, the short narrative piece. As the novel became the dominantgenre of nineteenth-century American writing, women adaptedthe techniques of literary piecing to the structural and temporaldemands of the new literary mode .

Piecing and writing in narrative, reflecting women's perceptionof time, indicates the many responsibilities (other than writing)of the woman writer. In a 1978 interview with Martha VanNoppen, Welty reflects on the process of piecing together hernovel, Losing Battles, while facing financial hardship and whiletaking care of her dying mother:

MvN: I think it took Tillie Olsen a period of twenty years,writing on little scraps of paper which became her first andonly novel.Welty: Well, Losing Battles, which I wrote among difficulties,took about ten years, and it was written—MvN: On scraps of paper?Welty: On a combination of scraps of paper and a lot ofthings. You can write it any way. At the same time, I wasdoing lecturing to earn money. I just take for granted youhave to manage. You have to learn some way!This little snippet of conversation reflects Welty's determination

to create despite the different demands on her time. And in fact,Welty's very writing style is a process of "piecing and writing":

Welty: I never heard of cut-and-pin. I just made it up formyself, but I suppose a lot of other people must have thought

of it too. Have you ever worked on a newspaper?MvN: No.Welty: When you throw something away, you just tear thestrip across the bar at the top and throw it away. I got inthe habit of tearing off the strip, both what I wanted to saveand what I wanted to throw away, so that I ended up withstrips — paragraphs here, a section of dialogue, and so on.I pin them together and then when I want to cut something,I cut it with the scissors. . . You can move it, you cantranspose. It's wonderful. It gives you a feeling of greatmobility.MvN. How did you get the idea? Were you ever a seamstress?Welty: Oh, I have cut out things with patterns. No, I'm nota seamstress, but I have made things, and that is the wayyou make things, of course. On a dining room table, too.8

Like quilting (also an act often performed in the midst of adomestic setting, at the dining room table — not to belabor aparallel) women's writing often fails to receive due respect as anart form. As Alicia Ostriker has pointed out, certain diminutive,condescending words are often used to describe women's writing:graceful, subtle, elegant, delicate, cryptic. Seldom does one hearforceful, masterly, violent, large, true.9 That is certainly reflectedin the critical response to Welty's work. When The RobberBridegroom was first published, The New Yorker called it "gay,soaring, without a breadth of nightmare,"° in spite of the fact,that, like fairy tales, it is full of rapes, murders and chopped-offfingers and heads. Perhaps because Welty used older, establishedsources — and because those sources were viewed as essentiallyfrivolous in and of themselves — what she accomplished is notseen as true "art."

Welty uses quilt images in several works. In The RobberBridegroom, Rosamond finds the silk dress that Jamie has stolenfrom her, "rolled up into a ball like a bundle of so many quiltingpieces." In Losing Battles, Granny Vaughn's quilt features the"Delectable Mountains" pattern, indicating a sense of place. InDelta Wedding, a quilt is a wedding gift from family members,a positive symbol of continuity. In Livvie, old Solomon huddlesunder his quilt, clinging to the past and neglecting his youngwife. His quilt is pieced in the "Around the World" pattern,though narrow, pinched Solomon has never been anywhere. Ina 1972 interview with Charles T. Bunting, Welty announces thatshe knows at least 30 quilt names." For Welty, writing as quiltingfits in with her identity as a Southern woman writer. Quiltingstands for continuity, a sense of place, a skill passed downthrough time, a communal — and quintessentially female —activity. "The urge to create a thing of beauty from scraps offabric is a challenge, plus a tactile reminder of past generations.My hands are moving the same way as my mother's andgrandmother's did years before," says a present-day quilter,Karey Bresenhan, head of the International Quilt Festival.12

Showalter's article ends with a very brief caveat about beingtoo quick to welcome quilting as a feminist metaphor; quilting

may indeed be a burden, a symbol of a dead time and bad forthe eyes to boot. I like the idea of keeping quilting ambivalent,though. Quilting was indeed difficult and frequently unpleasant:

Saliva was used to stop bleeding if one's finger was pricked andalum was used by a few to help toughen the tips of the fingers inanticipation offrequent jagging. Cold water and soap were appliedimmediately to any blood stain on the quilt, those on the backingor underside sometimes being missed.13

The often painful process produces powerful-looking, beautifulresults. The same might be said for the act of writing. The bloodis there, both in the process and in the product, but whenreviewers look at Welty's work, they often ignore the blood onthe backing. They run for their "delicate" imagery instead. In fairytales too, the dark side has been ignored in favor of moralizing(often with anti-feminist sentiment).14 Beauty and violence arestitched together.

To some extent, however, the violence in The RobberBridegroom is problematic and disturbing from a feministperspective. It seems to blame the victim. Jamie rapes Rosamondat their first meeting; he does so repeatedly throughout their lifetogether in the robbers' den, until she learns his true identity. "Butwhen she tried to lead him to his bed with a candle, he wouldknock her down and out of her senses and drag her there.However, if Jamie was a thief after Rosamond's love, she was hisfirst assistant in the deed, and rejoiced equally in his goodsuccess." 15 It is unnerving that Welty seems to blame Rosamondfor confusing rape with love, as much as she blames Jamie forraping Rosamond. In her view, men can be reformed, but it isup to women to do the reforming. This is an essentially conservativeview of the role of women: to tame and control an uncivilizedenvironment and an undomesticated man.

Quilts made with worn scraps of fabric can be seen asessentially conservative too, for three reasons. They literallyconserve the past; their patterns are often prescribed and familiar;there is no getting around the fact that the material (like Welty'snarrative material) has been used before. Of course, there isalways the potential for wildness in creation, even when usingan established pattern: Creativity can come in combining fabricsand colors. And doing so, using the scraps one has to beautifya harsh environment, is intricately tied to the notion of women'srole as civilizing influence. Quilting can be a form of empowerment;it can also be a form of limitation and subjugation.

For the most part, though, I believe quilting and storytellingare both primarily affirmative acts. Karen Rowe, in The FemaleVoice in Folklore and Fairy Tale, writes of the stitching of fairytale heroines and its relation to female tale-tellers:

[T]he intimate connection, both literal and metaphoric, betweenweaving and telling a story also establishes the cultural and literaryframeworks within which women transmit. . folklore and fairy tales.. 'When later women became tale tellers or sages femmes, theiraudible art is likewise associated with their cultural function as silentspinners or weavers, and they employ the fairy tale as a speaking (oralor literary) representation of the silent matter of their lives.16

The silent women creating textiles within fairy tales becomevocal women creating texts. Quilting is a regional metaphor, aform of storytelling through stitching, which reclaims this activity.

Past quilters' names have gone unrecorded, been lost bycollectors or been deleted by museum curators. And the womenspinning fairy tales have, through history, been silenced just asfairy tale heroines have been silenced. The Grimms adapted andedited the tales they collected from oral spinners, and the namesof centuries of tellers have been lost.

With The Robber Bridegroom, Welty creates a piecednarrative that self-consciously encourages the reader todeconstruct it as narrative. Welty has her text point out its ownacts of theft, its own structure, through the humor and startlingrecombinations. In a story about not knowing and notrecognizing the self as well as the other, the collision of fairytale and historical world reinforces the sense of playfullyserious disorientation.

Marjorie Ingall, a staff writer for Sassy magazine, has alsowritten for Fodor's Travel Guides and McCall's magazine. Ms.Ingall adapted "The Quilting of Narrative" for The Quilt Journalfrom her magna cum laude senior thesis in English andAmerican Literature and Folklore and Mythology at HarvardUniversity in 1989. She lives in New York City.