Domestic Art and legacy

Production/consumption plays an important role in female/girl community. In the intro, “Mary” describes the importance of production/consumption most succinctly when she describes “piecing” as a means of ordering or controlling a life that is mostly beyond one’s control. “The material is what is passed on to you or all you can afford to buy...But the way you put them together is your business” (20). Control, a feeling of being in control or having control over an aspect of yourself, is a way that many clothing lines, make-up, and other girl product lines gets women in the mood to buy. As one of the previous articles discussed, it isn’t the product but the promise that the product offers that is most appealing. In “piecing” for quilts, Mary describes the sense of control born of material things. However, materiality also connotes comfort in female/girl communities as the stories from the “youth” portion of the pdf’s illustrate. The quilts, unlike a set of clothes or dresses or shoes, connect meaning with the material in a way that the material alone (the clothes and dresses, jewelry, etc) cannot. I think this speaks directly to the ordering Mary talks about in the intro, but as the piecing triggers memories, so too do the pieces, organized into quilt, create linear narratives of memory. Be it measles, or pride, the quilts represented in the readings position the production of quilts as something beyond the original products from which they are taken. The generations that follow the quilters and the quilts retain pride beyond the material. It’s legacy wrapped up in female/girl community that makes the quilt less of a product and more an experience, or tradition. This speaks to the inherent treasure of such practices, that they can’t be bought, easily had, and the emotions and memories associated with them are priceless.