Part A: Introduction
Background
Most of the quilts, in the context of the United States before World War I, focused on utilizing burgundy, gray, and indigo fabrics. The quilters focused on lightening up these darker colors through shirting prints, as well as fabrics with small dark designs on the white background. Following the First World War, manufacturers sought to flood the market through the explosion of the fabrics in unlimited designs and the new color palette. Such pastels did incorporate pink, yellow, lime sherbet, lavender, and light blue colors. Moreover, quilters focused on utilization of catalogs, magazines, and newspapers to generate opportunities in buying fabric and block designs through mail order (Litwinow, 2008).
Nevertheless, in less than ten years, the stock market did crash in 1929 causing a depression of the economy. Various quilters could not procure new fabrics. In spite of these challenges, they did continue to make quilts while exploiting the recycled feed sacks, as well as scraps from the clothing constructions. Quilters also focused on making quilts through procuring or purchasing kits containing material for the quilt top marked by numbers to demonstrate correct placement for the pattern pieces to include the fabric (Litwinow, 2008). In such instances, the quilters had the obligation to cut, match, and stitch the pieces to the top before finishing it in agreement with the demands and expectations of the target audiences.
Some of the major quilt patterns during this era include Double Wedding Ring, Dresden Plate, and Grandmother’s Flower Garden. Other patterns did include Dove, Bow Tie, Sunbonnet Sue, Overall Sam, and Snake Trail. Some of the prominent quilters in history include Van Cortlandt Eve, Martha Babson Lane, Marie Webster, Wheat Esther, Copp Family, and Harrison Clara. Categorically, it is essential to note that quilts made during the Great Depression did add beauty to diverse homes with the objective of offering warmth, as well as comfort (Litwinow, 2008). From this perspective, there were numerous quilts, which nearly every family; textile auction, antique mall, and the show had these quilts. These quilts could testify to the creativity, as well as frugality of Depression-era quilters (Goldsmith, 2007).
Part B: Patterns of Quilting and the Great Depression
The art declined in the 1800s following the stability in the economic setups and the government structures. In the American context, as the name suggests, quilting from the great depression is traced back to the 1929 calamity that affected the social setup of the state. The great state economic depression that accompanied the onset of World War 2, presented a major challenge in the country. This situation saw the gross national product drop tremendously as to a deep depression from $104.4 billion to about $74.2 billion in the country.
The Great Depression was one of the critical economic conditions, which was quite challenging for the women and other practitioners who sought to execute their desire to quilt. During this economic period, money or financial resource was very tight in diverse families. Nevertheless, there were limited supplies across the United States. Women focused on turning to creativity, as well as resourcefulness with the objective of generating beautiful quilts (Brackman, 2011). From this perspective, it is valuable to note that most of the contemporary quilts trace back to the Great Depression. Some of the popular patterns regarding development or creation of quilts did include Double Wedding Ring, Dresden Plate, and Grandmother’s Flower Garden. Other patterns did include Dove, Bow Tie, Sunbonnet Sue, Overall Sam, and Snake Trail (Blanchard, Feather, & Wilson, 1991).
Effect of Great Depression on Economy
It is vital to note that the economy of America did enter an ordinary recession during the summer of 1929 forcing consumer spending to drop, as well as piling up of the unsold goods, thus, the eventual slowing of the production or manufacturing process. During this period, the stock prices sought to increase leading to a burst towards the end of 1929 since investors began dumping the shares in masses. This was evident in the trading of 12.9 million shares on the ‘Black Thursday.’ The recession did affect the confidence of the consumers in the wake of the crash of the stock market. The eventual downturn in the essence of spending and investment did force various factories and business entities to consider slowing down manufacturing or production, as well as the firing of the employees or workers in pursuit of lowered operation costs during crisis.
Far from the gross economic impacts, the great depression not only paralyzed the structural development, but also disorientated the family setups in the state. Many people became unemployed as the crisis ate into the valuable production process. This economic crash was an economic blow to the entire globe that hit America in the heart. These situations not only revived the desire to make a living out of personal strengths, but also to nurture the production of cheap commodities in the states (McConnel, 2016). Women then rejuvenated in the venture of fabric modification by sewing several fabrics together.
Role of Quilting in Solving the Effects
In the above analysis, it is essential to understand that the Great Depression had negative implications on the growth and development of the economy, as well as the purchasing power of the families. From this perspective, the recession led to deterioration of the living conditions of the citizens of the United States. During this recession, people did not have the substantive amount or purchasing power to buy essential commodities such as blankets. In the course of solving this issue, women or quilt practitioners focused on exploiting their skills and available resources to engage in the quilting process, thus, the platform to keep their families warm and attractive. In such instances, quilters sought to save bits, as well as pieces of material from clothing and other blankets to consider utilizing materials from the feed-sacks. Quilters also have the opportunity to sell their products at lower prices to non-quilters who had adequate financial resources to make ends meet (Gomez, 1999).
The concept of ‘making do’ was a common practice for the quilters during the difficult years regarding the implications of the Great Depression. Quilters focused on exploiting their skills and expertise to provide for their families whose members had lost their jobs in the affected companies, factories, or business entities across the nation. From this illustration, it is valuable to note that quilting was an essential practice, which sought to improve the living conditions of the families in the midst of the trying economic times regarding the case of the United States (Hird, 2015).
Quilting practice did play a critical role in alleviating the influence of reduced purchasing power among the citizens because of the critical economic conditions during the Great Depression. Quilting profession did offer substantive employment to the women or quilters in the course of addressing their needs or satisfying their wants. Categorically, quilting sought to exploit the concept of recycling to minimize the cost of operation in the development of quality products and services for the residential homes during the Great Depression.
Transformation of Quilting during the Great Depression
The poor economic conditions during the Great Depression did force diverse changes or transformations to the concept of quilting. From this perspective, the financial resources were tight limiting the approach by the practitioners to procure quality products and services in the course of making the quilts. In such instances, women and other quilt practitioners or expertise sought to turn to creativity and innovation, as well as resourcefulness with the objective of creating beautiful and cheap quilts for the demands and expectations of the society. Besides, the practitioners sought to incorporate recycling technique with the objective of minimizing the cost of production (Blanchard, Feather, & Wilson, 1991). The collapse of the economy did limit the ability of the practitioners to procure the materials, thus, the need to recycle materials for the generation of creative and beautiful products or quilts to address the demands or needs of the consumers within the society.
Part C: Impact on Women and Family
Over time, this artisan activity had dominated the entire American culture. However, it depreciated with a great margin at some point in their history. Following the impact of the great depression that crashed the economic status of the country, many of the women and families were left bare hands with little or choices left but to be very much more resourceful. The re-adventure in quilting at such point in time of crisis had a significant impact on the society at large.
Housewives had to sell the available resources to make a living from the hard economic crisis. They not only had to fetch for their families following economic blow, but also to contribute to the economic development by being resourceful as well. The art was a great plus in magazine sales. Attaching value to the beauty of the art, the products could importantly appeal to the eyes of most of the buyers. A large of number of magazines would be sold in the utter link to the beautiful artisan’s works and decorations. These features acted as a medium for personal sales promotion in the market of magazines. Volumes of profits were made from such a trash reuse in the country. The women developed a platform that would, besides nurturing the inborn talents, also help them develop a family role in fetching livelihoods. It also helped women to interact and identify with the world. For instance, the Chicago world's fair attracted over 25000 women from all over the state. It also earned a living. This fair secured an income of about $1200 billion.
Moreover, many families successfully indulged their income generating activities through the modification of trash and other fabrics in the environment. The quilting was a source of beauty in the families. It also provided a lot of warmth and comfort at night and cold moments. The implication of these the women's magazines gained lots and lots of lucrative value as much of the enticement was attached to this rare skill and talent of beauty. The magazines not only served as an educational channel where the artisans would not only display their rare skills and products, but also various models in the market. This developed a very huge impact in the families and individual women in the American culture at large. Talent and skills became the epitome of individual identification. Many individuals desired to create a memory in the culture. From many consultants, the women also enjoyed moments, making the quilts and so it was a moment of creative design and leisure.
The situation also created an employment opportunity for the population among the women’s culture, they engaged in the activities to derive income for sustenance of their families. The women’s magazine had a bigger implication among other informative channels. It portrayed a culture of a lucrativity, talent exhibition at the center of a state crisis.
Part D: Quilting Styles
Patterns
The quilting styles embraced in many of the artisans' work, were those related to personal passion for design and color, pattern and the desired outlook of the quilt products. Some were made based on the design of a particular memory intended to be made and passed among the buyers and the sellers in the market arena. These were made in the form of gifts to decorate homes and to instill memories of the gift-givers upon the receivers. They could be called forget-me-not jugs, whatnot jars, ugly jugs among other names. They were placed on graves or marked with the name of a specific person to remember them. The pattern used plastics among other trash products to develop the quilt.
The other patterns involved the overall quilt making that entailed the overall quilt making. This pattern involved the gathering of trash such as scrap fabrics and usable parts of used clothes to develop cheap products such as britches. This majorly aimed at art development and skill promotion in the verge of sustenance and cheap product development. This pattern formed the majority of the great depression in quilting industry. The most popular quilt patterns of the Great Depression are the Double-wedding ring, Grandmother’s, Flower Garden, and Dresden Plate or Dresden Fan. Others include Drunkard’s Path, Bow Tie, Sunbonnet Sue, Overall Sam, Butterflies, Postage Stamp, and Irish Chain. Each of these patterns had distinctive features.
Both the Double-wedding ring, Grandmother’s pattern call for the use of small fabrics. The result is a multicolored and patched quilt. It is advantageous in that it allows the artisan to use even the smallest pieces of fabrics. Such patches made the product very beautiful and attractive to the potential users.
Inspirations
The artisans- women got inspirations majorly from the environmental besides other factors in the economy. The hard conditions in the great depression rather than prompting an alarmed action also prompted talent shows. These situations resulted in personal passion to create impact and cultural identities. Moreover, they got inspired by the businessmen who took advantage of the cheap products. They could make huge amounts of profits from the throwaways without paying any huge cost in acquiring the resources in the product industry. The less production cost was a major boost in venturing into this field.
In addition, some were also motivated by the products developed by the other women. The desire of such a beautiful environment in the homesteads inspired many young women to create an impact. The other inspiration was also derived from the desire to create a memory in the culture in the struggle for identity in the culture and being resourceful in the societies.
Materials used.
Quilting in the American context applied the following material trash products ranging from used usable wastes such as buttons, bottle caps, wires, brushes, less readily identifiable refuse, worn out clothes among other products (Brackman, 2011). The spirited artisans used their spirit skills. The following is an image showing an image of quilting:
Part D: Conclusion
In conclusion, the year between 1930 and 1940, punctuated by the great depression was an era that all quilt collectors got into the limelight. Quilting can simply be defined as the art of fabric modification to form thicker fabric layers from the sewing technique. This art has a historical background dating back to the early centuries in the history of the American culture. Quilting came out with much frugality that allowed the society to save and maneuver through the hard times. This led to the household name of Depression Quilts because quilting was much synonymous with salvation from the crisis. Quilts came as a product of Great Depression, which the individuals turned to in the course hard times. The depression in the economy served as a limitation on the ability of the practitioners to procure the materials; consequently, leading to the need to recycle materials for the generation of creative and beautiful products or quilts to address the demands or needs of the consumers within the society. Quiltmaking came out as a cheap means that the society could utilize small scraps arising from sewing.
References
Blanchard, R. T., Feather, B. L., & Wilson, L. (1991). Design characteristics and inspiration sources of depression era quilts. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 9(2), 56-64.
Gomez, A. (1999). American art of conspicuous recycling. Art education, 52(3), 25-40.
Hird, L. A. (2015). The Farmer's wife 1930s sampler quilt: Inspiring letters from farm women of the Great Depression and 99 quilt blocks that honor them.
Litwinow, C. N. (2008), “Quilting in the Great Depression.” Piecework Magazine, Interweavepressllc.
Goldsmith, D. (2007, Jun 12). A patchwork of warmth and hope - in 10-inch squares. The Christian Science Monitor Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/405559062?accountid=45049
Brackman, Barbara (2011). Frugal and Fashionable: Quiltmaking During the Great Depression. Retrieved from: http://www.quiltindex.org/essay.php?kid=3-98-6
McConnel, S. (2016). Quilting History: A Look Back at Beautiful 1930s Quilts. Retrieved from: http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2016/01/1930s-quilts/
