Quilts a Living Tradition

The passages in italics in this article are quotations from Quilts A Living Tradition by Robert Shaw, 1995, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. Beaux Arts Editions.

"Historically, quilts were a source of solace and a creative outlet for many women. Quilts can be especially revealing about women's feelings and perceptions of themselves, sometimes telling stories and carrying emotions that cannot be as effectively expressed by more literal means.

Quilts are powerful symbolic objects that stimulate the imagination and evoke for many a lost and innocent America of small towns, closely knit families, moral integrity, neighborly concern and charity. That this America is mythic only emphasizes the power of the quilt as symbol and metaphor. Quilts touch our deepest longing for ourselves and for our children, opening direct channels to our emotions, hopes and dreams as only great art can. Quilts can carry family memories from generation to generations. Quilts are also symbols of relationships, especially the primal and nurturing relationship between mother and child. They are the most intimate of objects, created out of love and care, metaphorically wrapping the sleeper in the warmth and concern of the maker's affection, promising comfort, protection and peace through the night's dark uncertainties. Quilts receive our dreams."