| Abstrakt: |
The Northern New York QuiltProject (2014-2018) documented 624 quilts. One-third was tied quilts, or "comforters." Tied quilts are typically considered less valuable than those fastened by lines of stitching This preference is largely an aesthetic judgment but is also because comforters have the reputation of being the products of low-income rural areas; collectors and curators have long preferred high style artifacts, products of the elite. Study of comforters and their makers in northern New York over the past century and a half reveals a more nuanced assessment of these common bedcovers. Analyzed with the methods of social history and material culture, they provide a window into the lives of rural women, women who are themselves understudied. By placing comforters in the context Of the lives of their makers and quilts of their time and region demonstrates that we should not see comforters as second best but as a result of choices made by makers responding to climate, materials at hand, and tradition. Working mostly with the block style, North Country women created bedcovers that are comparable in design to the contemporary quilts made in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
