There are multiple collections at the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology that contain quilts. Quilts can reflect the creator’s social or cultural identity, which can be easier to identify. Specific color combinations, styles, fabrics, and stitching techniques, give cultures (and eras) their own unique quilting customs. Sometimes there are even regional differences within the same culture.
See below for examples of the kinds that you will find at the IUMAA!
Find IUMAA's quilt collections online at The Quilt Index, an open access repository of thousands of images, stories, and information about quilts and their makers from around the world:
"Crazy quilts" are sometimes called "crazy patchwork" and refer to the irregular piecework that lacks a motif or replicated pattern and has seams that are often embellished.
Gullah quilts are made along the coasts of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, but show the influence of both African and American quilt techniques. Researchers think that the long strips of fabric in these quilts were influenced by the strip-woven fabrics worn in Africa (long, narrow woven strips sewn together to create a larger fabric). Whether true or not, the Gullah quilts are unique and identify the maker as someone from that community.
Pakistani quilts called “ralli” are often made by women and their designs vary from region to region. For example, in the southern part of the Sindh province ralli is made using pieced black and white blocks surrounded by red, yellow, black, and white applique blocks. However, in Baluchistan they make embroidered ralli using bright colors and embellishments like mirrors, tassels, and cowrie shells.
Quilts all over the world reflect part of their artist’s personal identity. They might be made from a favorite outfit or represent the creator’s favorite pattern or a special memory. Personal elements like these, as well the identity of the quilter, are hard to know without recorded stories. But that doesn’t mean they are not unknowingly represented in the fabric.
Thanks for becoming part of the worldwide quilting tradition! As part of Themester 2022: Identity and Identification we, collectively, created a quilt that represents IU Bloomington. Makers decorated however they wanted - showing us what makes them, them.
Quilt squares were made in fabric or other mediums, then photographed, scanned, or otherwise digitized and submitted to IUMAA digitally using #IUquilt. The results speak for themselves!
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