The spring of 2016 seems a lifetime ago. More than one thing bothered me about the original headline:
Not Your Grandma’s Quilt: Just a couple of years before I’d learned that my Nana (Grandma’s mom) quilted for other people. As the sentimental one the opportunity to have one of those quilts
Patchwork Blankets: so many words so little time
Suddenly Feels Cool Again: There’s nothing “sudden” about this. Quilters work damn hard. We’re on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs sharing our “patchwork blankets”.
The headline then, and whatever is bubbling to the surface now is as dismissive of the skill, labor, time, and talent of the women who made those quilts. It’s dismissive now. It continues devaluing that which women add to the workplace in general. Our grandmothers, and great grandmothers made quilts that lasted through the ages without the benefit of the best of our mod cons: the rotary cutter, mats, and rulers, making do with scissors, and whatever they had to make templates to cut the cloth. They did math without the aid of calculators. Think about that one for a moment.
Here’s the notions piece from Generation Q Magazine Summer 2016.
I’ll be sharing the interview with Alex Anderson, who started her career as a young mom. She’s now a grandmother.
Teri
Thank you for sharing the Notions article, I had not seen it before. And thank you for writing such an eloquent response. I *think* I recall the Vogue article. It’s tellingly pathetic there’s been so many “not your grandmother’s….” articles they have all blended together. All so dismissive of both “women’s work”, past and present, and older women in general. I have to wonder if anyone at Vogue ever saw your article.