During the Roosevelt administration’s efforts to combat the Great Depression, the quilt became an emblem for how to lift one’s family out of poverty, piece by piece.A New Deal for Quilts explores how the U.S. government drew on quilts and quilt-making, encouraging Americans to create quilts individually and collectively in response to unemployment, displacement, and recovery efforts. Quilters shared their perspectives on New Deal programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the National Recovery Administration, which sent quilts as gifts to the Roosevelts and other officials. Federal programs used quilts’ symbolic heft to communicate the values and behaviors individuals should embrace amid the Depression, perceiving the practical potential of crafts to lift morale and impart new skills. The government embraced quilts to demonstrate the efficacy of its programs, show women how they could contribute to their families’ betterment, and generate empathy for impoverished Americans.

With more than one hundred period photographs and images of quilts,A New Deal for Quilts evokes the visual environment of the Depression while conveying ways craft, work, race, poverty, and politics intersected during this pivotal era. Accompanying the book is a fall 2023 exhibit at the International Quilt Museum, featuring 1930s quilts drawn from its renowned collection.

More inspiration, patterns and techniques from the legendary author. The latest Barbara Walker Knitting Treasury combines 82 newly-invented stitch patterns in Knit, Purl and Texture, Cables and Traveling Stitches, Lace and more, with a reprint of Walker’s Sampler Knitting including stitch patterns for Basic Shapes in Garter Stitch, Mosaic, Lace and Cable Samplers.

MEASUREMENTS
‎8.75 x 1 x 10.75 inches
2.8 pounds

LANGUAGE
English

PUBLISHER
International Quilt Museum, 2023

PAGES
Paperback, 250 pages

OTHER
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎1735278459
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎978-1735278452