East Gallery
Centennial Stitches
Oklahoma History in Quilts
August 20 thru October 21, 2007
Like a magic carpet transporting us back in time, quilts stitch our past to the present. They record community and family history, memorializing lost loved ones, welcoming new members to our community, smiling upon new marriages or celebrating an anniversary, farewell or graduation. Quilts mark the passing of daily life and paint the beauty of dreams with needle and thread to record thoughts, prayers and emotional journeys. Quilts leave a lasting legacy of love, faith and courage to each succeeding generation so its maker is not forgotten.
Centennial Stitches--Oklahoma History in Quilts, offers an artistic view of our state’s history. The quilts in the exhibit are part of a collection managed by Judy Howard, an Oklahoma City quilt historian, who has collected over 5,000 antique and vintage quilts over the last 30 years and has published several photographic collections of these works. She said that the people and places portrayed in these quilts offer a unique perspective into the inspirational and exciting stories of Oklahoma families.
“Without the sacrifice of our pioneer women, Oklahoma wouldn’t be having it’s Centennial,” Howard explained. “These women grew and carded their own cotton for the batting and used old clothing, feed-sacks and every scrap of fabric they could recycle to make new quilts to replace the old family ones.”
“Since kids were more plentiful than cloth, cloth was held in higher esteem,” explained quilter 97 year old Ethel Howery whose four sets of grandparents wrote Oklahoma history, having each homesteaded Norman and the Downtown Airpark.
Howard described how these utilitarian but cherished family quilts were brought in covered wagons and trains into Indian Territory before statehood along with the other bare necessities like pots and pans, axes, saws, tools, seed and a few food staples needed to survive in the wilderness frontier. Quilts provided the warmth to survive the bitter cold winters for the pioneers living in tents, wagons, sod dug-outs, drafty log cabins and clapboard houses without heat.
Many of the quilt patterns like Road to Oklahoma, Windmill, Split Rail Fence, Log Cabin, Barn Raising, Trail of the Covered Wagon, Schoolhouse, Twister, Churn Dash, and Hole in the Barn Door tell of their bleak rural surroundings and everyday life. These works of art also provided the only touch of beauty.
While daily life is recorded, a prayer is contained within every loving stitch… that the one who sleeps beneath this quilt be safe and prosper.
Sponsored by the Oklahoma Arts Council. For more information contact Scott Cowan at 405.521.2931 or scott@arts.ok.gov.
The East Gallery is located on the 1st floor of the State Capitol and open daily from 8:00-5:30.