American Tradition
by Gail Lang
Part 1 of 5

Since the early eighteenth century American women have created a unique way to express themselves. Their talent came part from need itself, and part from a need to find a creative outlet. Having limited access to fabric they had to make every scrap count, thus the tiniest scraps were saved to piece together with other scraps to create quilts for warmth. I imagine the first quilt was created just for that purpose alone, warmth, with little thought to the finished pattern, but as time passed, women discovered these scraps of cloth could create beauty of its own. This need and creativity gave birth to a new art form - the American patchwork quilts.

Many women found an avenue of expression for their emotions by translating them into quilt patterns. Wonderful designs such as "Crown of Thorns", "Star of Bethlehem" and "World Without End" came to be as women poured their hearts and souls into those small bits of cloth. The Song of Solomon provided the inspiration for one young bride's quilt: "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." She named her quilt "The Rose of Sharon."

Only someone who has spent hundreds of hours piecing together a single quilt by hand can really understand the true passion behind each stitch, but anyone with an eye for beauty can appreciate the art to be found in a well made quilt. The ability to design, to manipulate color, harmonize, scale and create geometric form are skills inherent in the best quilter. The choice of color and materials can make an amazing difference in the look of a quilt.

The two sets of samples below show how differently one pattern can look using different color/fabric combinations. The two quilts on the left I refer to as "Grandmother's Star." I"m sure there is a specific name for the pattern and I could look it up in one of my many quilt reference books, but that would take from it's special meaning to me. It was my grandmothers favorite design and she made it over and over, each time using whatever materials were at hand causing each quilt to look completely different. The quilts on the right, "Bear Paw Quilts", were made for a set of siblings, same pattern but completely different color schemes reflecting each child's desires.