{"id":7872,"date":"2011-02-09T11:33:30","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T18:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T12:49:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T20:49:49","slug":"political-quilts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/quilts-2\/series-quilts\/political-quilts\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Quilts"},"content":{"rendered":"

My political quilt career started as I sat home alone watching the US bomb the Iraqis in the first Gulf War. The first quilt, Blood and Oil<\/a>: the Peace Quilt, just poured out of me. This was the beginning of the challenges in making and displaying political quilts.<\/p>\n

\"Blood<\/a>
Blood & Oil: The Peace Quilt, 1990<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I put a ‘river’ in the center that represents a river of devastation.<\/p>\n

Displaying this quilt at a local show was also a lesson in the display of political quilts. I saw the card with my story of the quilt on the quilt when I got there, but when I went back later, it was gone. No attribution and no story: no message got out to other quilt viewers. When I queried, they said that things like that happen and they would put up a new one. I never saw it.<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/a>
Artist Warrior and Mother Warrior<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Artist Warrior and Mother Warrior were made to express the difficulties of both ‘jobs’. I always had to fight for my child, for time to sew. It seemed like I was always fighting for something. I was a warrior and didn’t want to be one.<\/p>\n

This quilt was followed by two quilts after 9\/11, which were so hard to make, but also cathartic.<\/p>\n

\"Fireball\"<\/a>
Fireball<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fireball just expressed my horror of the devastation. I made it very quickly for the America from the Heart display at Houston in 2001, which was about a month and a half after the devastation of 9\/11.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a>
What Comes Next<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What Comes Next<\/a> is a quilt that expressed my hope for the future after 9\/11. The ‘river’ theme continues in this quilt, but this time is a river of tears. Of course, the future brought the second Iraqi war, the continuing war in Afghanistan, Syria, devastation, hatred, fear all over the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\"Women's<\/a>
Women’s Work 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Women’s Work is a comment on how women are still primarily responsible for housework, caregiving, cooking and childrearing. This is not to denigrate the strides in equality we have made.<\/p>\n

\"Down<\/a>
Down the Drain: Finished<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The stress that was the genesis of this quilt started on my birthday, which was January 20 (2017), not just because it was inauguration day, but also because I was at an event where people were happy to see President Obama leave office. They didn\u2019t like him because he was black. For them it was No-Bama Day. For me, even though I didn\u2019t know it at the time, it was the beginning of a stressful, distressing time.<\/p>\n

I walked around waiting for my ATM card not to work, to be made subhuman, like in the Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/a>. I started really to fear that the better country we were making would be dismantled. You might think we don\u2019t need the EPA or the ACA and that is your right. I do not want to create a Sh*tstorm and this is not a political blog. I feel we do need clean air and health care for everyone. My feelings coalesced when I saw Sarah Ann Smith\u2019s quilt, Speak Up, Speak Out<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah<\/a>
Sarah Ann Smith\u2019s Quilt Speak Up, Speak Out<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I saw her quilt, I realized that another in my political art quilt series had been brewing in my head without me really knowing. I thought \u201cthis is the quilt I wanted to make.\u201d I said so to Sarah and she said to make my version.<\/p>\n

\n

At the time, I posted a Spark about having a secret<\/a>. It was purely coincidental with the project I was working on.<\/p>\n

\"Down<\/a>
Down the Drain: basted and ready to quilt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I needed to work on this project, but I did not want comments or to provoke the storm I know will come with this post. At the time, I wasn\u2019t quite ready. I still am not ready. As long as I still have freedom of speech I will post this quilt. I knew about the Threads of Resistance project<\/a> and I would love to be a part of that show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

These quilts are difficult to make, difficult to display and difficult to look at. I have more in my future, I am sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My political quilt career started as I sat home alone watching the US bomb the Iraqis in the first Gulf War. The first quilt, Blood and Oil: the Peace Quilt, just poured out of me. This was the beginning of the challenges in making and displaying political quilts. I put a ‘river’ in the center … Continue reading “Political Quilts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5312,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7872","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7872"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65666,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7872\/revisions\/65666"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}