This is a handmade quilt created by my great-great grandmother, Alta Goodpaster. She would sew quilts for different occasions, such as my grandparents’ wedding, but this one was a baby gift for my mom in 1978. The fabrics she used were old clothes worn by my grandparents and other relatives. She used an English Paper Piecing technique and arranged hexagons into flower shapes. Each flower has a center hexagon surrounded by six petals, with green hexagons filling the spaces between the flowers. This style became especially popular in the 1930s-1940s, although the technique and pattern have much older roots. My mom used to sleep with this quilt growing up, and we still use it today. This shows how the 1970s saw renewed interest in handmade crafts, traditional skills, and preserving American heritage. This quilt has been passed down in my family, which demonstrates how personal and family traditions preserve history even when they’re not recorded in textbooks. The fabrics, patterns, and construction is evidence about what people valued and how they spent their time in 1978.

– EW

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more