Although the busy lives of women in the 21st
century don’t provide much time for quilting, this activity remains an almost
exclusive female form of relaxation, endurance, and expression. Quilting is
still present in the lives of women. Some of my best female students quilt to
relax and concentrate while teachers are lecturing. Some get very creative and end
up giving away most of their art to friends or family members (other females, primarily).
These young women -like women from centuries ago- have acquired the skill through their mothers or grandmothers,
who used it –apparently— for the same reasons.
Sandra Cisneros and her book “Caramelo” (caramel) came to mind right after reading the articles
about quilting. The book is the story of a young Chicana, Lala, who re-discovers
her Mexican roots through her grandmother’s shawl, which was the color caramel
by the time Lala found it. The quilt becomes an analogy for the fusion of
cultures (Mexican and American), the mixture of languages (Spanglish), and –most importantly—
the “quilting” of a writer’s story. Lala, the central narrator, stitches
together pieces of her memories and fragments of the memories of others to end
with a “quilt” like her grandmother’s. Her grandmother’s artifact was a shawl,
and Lala’s is a book.
I don’t quilt, but I do posses an old shawl that my
grandmother quilted when she was alive. Interestingly, my husband also keeps
his grandmother’s bed quilt. My sister keeps my late aunt’s bed quilt too (my
aunt didn’t have any children and thought of my sister as her own daughter). Quilting
is a means to expression, but above all, I think, a quilt is a piece of
endurance: the “remaining evidence” of the life of a woman.
Nora
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ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using another object as an artifact that holds cultural and historical significance that is equivalent to the quilts that we are reading about. Cooking family recipes, sewing clothing, embroidery, crocheting, or knitting, they are forms that connects women to their girlhood.
ReplyDeleteNora,
ReplyDeleteI think it's so awesome that you have your grandmother's shawl. I just got a call from my grandmother (who is 97) the other day. She said she was going to mail me a little glass bird that had been given to her as an anniversary present -- then she added that it was the 66th anniversary of her wedding (July 11, 1946). I cried when I hung up the phone -- both because I felt so touched by the gesture, but also because her health has been declining rapidly over the past six months and I feel like her giving me the bird is an ominous sign.
I think it's interesting that in families, it seems like women are the guardians of family history -- well, maybe just in my own family. My mother inherited all of her family's old photographs and letters, some dating to 19th Century Germany. A few months ago, I visited my grandmother and we went through all of her old photo albums -- and I almost felt like the family "torch" is being passed to me – stories and memories, etc. Laurie Anderson has a great line in one of her songs: “When my father died, it was like a whole library had burned down.”
Sorry for getting so personal in this response, but this really hit home.
Hayley
Hey Hayley: BIG HUG!
DeleteNora,
DeleteAll of the quilts and shawls and family heirlooms almost act as pictures for your brain in a way. These artifacts are charged with memory and powerful meaning. They are monuments to past lives of people we love. It's very touching to know that these items are in your family and it's important for you to keep them. These items bringing fond memories of the past owners. There is something to be said for the feelings that arise when you look at an item and can say, "My mother made this." It adds a sense of vitality to the object.
Hayley,
DeleteThank you for sharing your story, many of us can relay to it. I remember that before my grandmother passed away someone suggested that I should record conversations with her to keep for years to come. I regret that I never took the time to do it (I'd just had my daughter and that kept me from visiting her often). Anyway, hopefully you are able to spend time with your grandmother so that you can keep much more than just a shawl like me:(
Nora
It's interesting to me that a couple years ago there was a real boom in knitting (still is a to a point, I think) and that many colleagues and students started to knit in class. It was tied to relaxation - like you say about quilting - but it also seemed to have to do with marking those knitting in public as producers. I think it speaks to ideas of claiming new spaces, outside of the home, for women and girls. I also think ours is an increasingly consuming culture for all genders and maybe that's what has us recasting things like quilts as art.
ReplyDelete