"...the process of sewing two or more layers of fabric together to make a thicker padded material, usually to create a quilt or quilted garment. Typically, quilting is done with three layers: the top fabric or quilt top, batting or insulating material and backing material, but many different styles are adopted."
[Definition from Wikipedia]Quilts and quilting processes have been important in many cultures and societies for centuries. Kentucky has been a key area, not only for the historic presence of many quilts and quilters, but also for its special significance in scholarship and documentation of quilts.
In 1982, The Kentucky Quilt Project launched the first state-wide quilt documentation effort, which organized a series of documentation days around the state and publicized its methods, thus developing the modern model upon which today's serious quilt documentation efforts were built. While a diverse group of scholars, curators, folklorists, publishers, gallery owners and enthusiasts were involved, a key role was played by Louisville, Kentucky author/lecturer Shelly Zegart.
By 1993, Zegart helped to codify the state of quilt research and its future directions in her publication, Expanding Quilt Scholarship: The Lectures, Conferences, and Other Presentations of Louisville Celebrates the American Quilt.
Zegart and others followed up this significant development by encouraging and helping to propose the creation of the national Quilt Index, which built on the earlier efforts and which now has been expanded through the efforts of Michigan State University's Matrix: Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences, to fulfill the vision: "to gather in one computerized, bibliographic-style source, a non-critical index of quilt related materials in all communications: media, books, magazines, newspaper articles, movies and videotapes...."
The current version (2023) of The Quilt Index documents over 200,000 quilts, and includes examples from many states and regions. Kentucky's quilts are well represented, both visually and with historic metadata.
See also:
National Quilt Museum (Paducah, KY)
Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon Oral History Project (Nunn Oral History Center Collection)
Kentucky Quilt Guilds (40 local quilt guilds and clubs in Kentucky)
KENTUCKY QUILTERS, HISTORY & QUILTING RESOURCES
American Quilter's Society "AQS" (McCracken Co.: Paducah)
Appalachian Quilt & Craft (Perry Co.: Hazard)
Busy Lady Quilt Shop (Jennifer Carter - Bullitt Co.: Mt. Washington)
Dixon Designs [embroidery/story quilts] (Kim Dixon - Fayette Co.: Lexington)
Dolores Fegan Quilts (Lincoln Co.: Stanford)
Dry Hill Community Center (Leslie Co.: Dry Hill / Hell For Certain)
Work in handicrafts (Weaving, Quilting, Toys) began at this center in 1925. There were about 20 workers engaged in producing handicrafts at the Center in 1937, per Allen Eaton of the Russell Sage Foundation in Nov. 1937.
Eleanor Beard Studios (historic quilt business based in Hardinsburg)
(See also the note on "Exploitative Marketing" under
Marketing of Crafts)
Gena Mark (Fayette Co.: Lexington)
Glass Quiltopia [glass crafts, quilts] (Joanne Fransen-Gilliam - Logan Co.: Russellville)
Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society (Fayette Co.: Lexington) - KHQS
Kentucky Quilt Company (Warren Co.: Bowling Green)
Shelly Zegart Quilts, Etc. (Jefferson Co.: Louisville)
Million Stitches [quilts, fiber works] (Karen Million - Jessamine Co.: Nicholasville)
Mojo Quilts and More (Angelique Shah - Bullitt Co.: Shepherdsville)
The National Quilt Museum (McCracken Co.: Paducah)
Old Time Fabrics and Fiber Arts (Lincoln Co.: Stanford)
Pat's Fiber Arts Studio (Pat Sturtzel - Jefferson Co.: Louisville
Quilt Heaven Quilt Shop (Carter Co.: Grayson)
That's Sew You (Powell Co: Clay City)
The Quilt Index (Kentucky Made Quilts)
Quilts & Much More (Christian Co.: Oak Grove)
Quilts Plus Shop (Breathitt Co.: Jackson)
Rebekka Seigel (1948 - June 28, 2023) – Owen Co.: Owenton)
Sew Knot Fancy (Shaina Naillieux: Breathitt Co.: Jackson)
Uniquely Yours Quilting & Crafts (Hardin Co.: Elizabethtown)
Wade Hall Quilt Collection (Univ. of KY W.T. Young Library)
VIDEOS
See also: Marketing of Crafts
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Memory Quilts — statement by Karen Million of "Million Stitches"
The idea of a quilt being a lasting heirloom of art that "granny" made has transformed in modern times. While it was once made from the scraps that were leftover after granny or mom made clothes for their family, it is now an assemblage of t-shirts that the person wore during school, sports activities, trips and hobbies. Memory quilts can take on a much more creative assemblage of parts. They can be swatches from clothing, a quilt made out of clothing into blocks much like a traditional quilt, or appliqued baby clothes onto a background of some sort.
