Arizona
Quilt Documentation Project – Tucson
By
Sue Franklin
In July, the group welcomed guest,
Carolyn O’Bagy Davis. After a brief
business meeting, Carolyn presented the continuing education program on Hopi
quilts and her journey of discovery. Carolyn
noted that her involvement was quite accidental. She was invited to the mesas to see some
excavations, went on to visit the Hopi Indians, and began to notice the
quilts. They covered ovens, roof tops,
or were to sit upon, and babies were wrapped in quilts. She thought they were made by “bahanas,” white
women or missionaries, but they were not.
In historic times, men made the blankets and clothing, not the women,
because only men sewed. They spun and
wove the cloth, made simple dresses, and red, green, and white woven belts to
tie around the dresses.
In the 1890s, quilting was introduced to
the Hopis by missionaries who lived with them.
Also, around that time, children were sent to boarding schools where
girls learned homemaking skills including sewing and quilting, and boys
acquired shop skills. Eventually, the
missionaries realized that teaching quilting was the most effective way to get
the Hopis to attend church. The women
made quilts while the men stitched and tied thin mattresses. Today there are fourth or fifth generations
of Hopi quilters, women as well as some men.
Details of this program are available on
the AZQS web site www.azquiltstudygroup.org/.
Hopi
Quilts documented
included the following: 1) Painted Tile,
a blue ribbon quilt with corn in the husk borders and between some blocks,
skilled painting by maker; 2) Hopi Pottery with Yellow and Purple (Prairie
Points on two sides); 3) Painted Pottery; 4) Flat Doll, a cheerful flat doll surrounded
by bright yellow sashing and red borders; turquoise ties; 5) Field Mouse Goes
to War; Nine blocks surrounded by narrow black, with sashing and borders in
cheery diamond print of blue yellow and orange, tells antics of Field Mouse as
he goes to war. Black wool ties. 6)
Morning Song Kachina; Nine lovely Kachinas surrounded by sashing and borders of
pots and baskets. Narrow tan binding.
Anyone is welcome to visit our meetings! We love
guests. For questions about either quilt
documentation or joining the team, please either call or email Tucson liaisons
Sue Franklin, (520.490.4721; suevette63@comcast.net) or Terry Gryzb-Wysocki, (520.749.9326;
terry-gw@mindspring.com).
New team members are welcome. Monthly training sessions are held from
9:30 until 12:30 at the Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center on Ruthrauff
Road. The next meeting is Monday, July
10.
Information about quilt documentation
teams throughout Arizona may be obtained from Lynn Miller at either
480.202.1230 or azquiltdoc@yahoo.com. Lynn also needs people familiar with the
computer to aid her with data entry for the Quilt
Index. Lynn does distance training
which takes about two hours.
