Quilting in Appalachia

What is Quilting in Appalachia?

Quilting, Knitting, Crocheting, and Weaving are all popular forms of cloth and textile work that you'll see your grandmother working on for the next grandchild or cousin. All of them have a reason and a history behind them that makes them integral to keeping culture and heritage prevalent in technological times. That history varies depending on where one finds the information. In the Appalachian South quilting history is typically passed from mother to child or grandmother to grandchild. Quilting is how one could gain social standing and information about the community. Quilting is the time in which you learn about your neighbors or your family that you haven't seen for a while. It's something that brings the family together because you are making something for your loved ones. Quilts are typically given as gifts during big life events, such as: births, 18th birthdays, weddings, deaths, and inductions into families. They are very important culturally to many people in the Appalachian South because of how they are made and what they represent.
Quilting, while normally seen as an old people thing, isn't limited to them. Quilting competitions have people of varying ages compete on who makes the best quilt. These competitions are important because they bring together small reclusive communities and it helps its citizens to form closer bonds. These bonds then spread to include said people as family or close friends and very soon they will be getting a quilt, or helping to make one for the next wedding in town.
Quilting, as a practice, can be traced back to medieval times and was brought to popularity in the America's by immigrating Scottish, Irish, and German people. They used their knowledge of quilting and mixed it with the Indigenous people's knowledge of textiles to create what we call Appalachian Quilting today. The mixing of cultures created beautiful patterns and textures when making quilts, as you will see below.
The quilts presented below were chosen for reasons such as: textile context or historical context of quilting in Southern Appalachia, and because they are looking into Southern Appalachia they were chosen from Appalachian related collections or archives. They provide a look at how quilting became something important. The quilts pictured all have varying colorwork, texture, and stitching pattern. They were all made for a reason, either gifts, curiosity, or desire. These quilts truly expound upon the idea that textile work is art and it is hard work.