Thursday, January 12, 2012

Pam Stevenson and Quilts - Pieces of Time

Quilts tell so many stories- just ask the families who have inherited them. During the war, this Red Cross quilt was used to raise funds for the war effort. The Baltimore quilt with it's detailed workmanship has been auctioned several times with over $30,000 at last trade.

Historical League member and author Pam Stevenson shared stories of several quilts that make up the Grand Endeavors Quilts Book. Photos of several of these quilts are framed in the large board room at the AHS Museum.

Jackie Berkowitz presented Pam with a Centennial ball cap after her fascinating presentation.










More about the Program and Pam Stevenson -

It traces the history of Arizona through women who recorded pieces of their lives in their needlework. Beginning with Mexican women of the 1860’s through Hopi women of the 1990’s, this program introduces women who pioneered Arizona through the quilts they stitched. The colorful patterns of women’s quilts added a spot of brightness to their homes and their lives. Arizona Quilts features quilts discovered by the Arizona Quilt Project, which documented the history of Arizona quilts made before 1940. The results of this five year quilt research were recorded in the women’s history book, Grand Endeavors: Vintage Arizona Quilts and Their Makers, co- authored by Pam Knight Stevenson. The television documentary, Arizona Quilts: Pieces of Time, written and produced by Pam Knight Stevenson is also based on the Arizona Quilt Project research. Pam said that the Arizona Quilt Project documentation is archived at the AHS Papago Park Museum and the quilt photos in the board room are from that collection.

Pam Knight Stevenson is a journalist, historian and fourth generation quilter. Pam served nine years on the board of the Arizona Quilt Project, a non-profit organization created to document the history of quilts in Arizona. Besides the book and television program noted above, Pam also produced Hopi Quilts, a national PBS television documentary that traces the history of quilting on the Hopi mesas. She also produced the video Quilt preservation: Protecting your Quilts for the Future for the Phoenix Museum of History.

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