Quilting: The Fabric of Everyday Life [Paperback]

Quilting, once regarded as a traditional craft, has broken through the barriers of history, art and commerce to become a global phenomenon, international multi-billion dollar industry and means of gendered cultural production. In Quilting, sociologist and quilter Marybeth C. Stalp explores how and why women quilt.This close ethnographic study illustrates that women's lives can be transformed in often surprising ways by the activity and art of quilting. Some women who quilt as a leisure pastime are too afraid to admit to being a quilter for fear of ridicule; others boldly identify themselves as quilters and regard it as part of their everyday lives.The place of quilting in women's lives affects core family and personal identity issues such as marriage, childcare, friendship and aging. The book's accessible and intimate portrayal of real quilters' lives provides a fabric for the sociology, anthropology and textile student to understand more about wider issues of cultural production and identity that stem from this very personal pastime.Marybeth C. Stalp is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Northern Iowa.

Chapter I: Introduction: Why Quilting?
Why Quilts Matter... The (Recent) Global Quilting Phenomenon
What is a Quilt, Anyway?
Cultural Production in the Economic Sphere
The Sociology of Culture and the Culture of Non-Economic Cultural Production
Chapter II: Tripping through the Tulips: Doing Research Close to Home
Using Feminist Methods to Study Contemporary U.S. Quilters
Local Knowledge and Grounded Theory
Methods and Data
When Quilting is Enough: Immediate Commonalities through Quilting
Piecing Together My Personal and Professional Selves
Gendered Assumptions about Quilting and Fieldwork
How Long Did it Take You to Make That Quilt?
How Many Quilts Have You Made?
Revealing My Quilting and My Self
When Quilting is Not Enough: Tripping through the Tulips of an Academic Career
Chapter III: Ils-