| Following
the September 11th Attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon here
in the United States, I found myself barely able to function. My
heart was sick from the horror and I felt helpless to do anything
to stop it.
As a
quilt historian, I remembered that the key way women throughout
the ages have responded to catastrophe and times of high stress is
to take to the needle. Whether engaged in the simple rocking
motion of hand quilting, or caught up in the calming whir of the
sewing machine, our ancestors understood that sewing activities
calmed their nerves and soothed the soul. Women in America, when
confronted with severe tragedy, have consistently taken up sewing
and quilting projects as a way to cope and create significance.
As we try
to cope with a loss we cannot comprehend, we can continue to carry
forward our nation’s unrivaled quilting heritage. Our efforts to
create significance in our own lives can include expressing
ourselves artistically in fabric, constructing charity quilts for
those directly affected by the tragedy, creating cloth symbols and
needlework for our family and loved ones, or simply sewing or
quilting to keep ourselves in motion.
My hope
is that the Patriotic patterns on this page inspire you to create
significance in your own life; so that you will not be frozen with
fear, but will live with the determination that the American
Spirit, as expressed in women’s art since the birth of our
nation, continues intact and unbroken.
|
God
Bless America
|
United
We
Stand
