Stitching together a past to create a future : women, quilting groups and community in rural, southern New Brunswick

Abstract

People have been quilting for thousands of years and throughout countless societies. Quilting in a group within the Canadian Maritime provinces has been documented since the 18th Century and has become an intricate and important part of the regional cultural identity and women's culture. Many women from this region either have family members who have engaged in quilting or have engaged in this activity themselves. This thesis explores the importance of group quilting to maintaining the communities within the New Brunswick counties of Kings and Saint John. Based upon twenty individual interviews and many hours of group observation, I show how quilting groups continue to provide a safe space for women to meet, to converse about various community issues, and to formulate plans to address these issues. This engagement via community work is often overlooked by academia and mainstream society, yet is an exceptionally important form of political action as these women are primarily the ones who create and maintain their communities by "getting things done". This thesis demonstrates how women from this part of New Brunswick use the unique women's culture found within the quilting circle to discuss and address issues within the community, thus becoming politically engaged, resulting in empowered individual identities and highlighting the extensive scope of what it is to be a feminist.