Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon

Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies

by Janneken Smucker

The definitive study on the history, meaning, art, and commerce of Amish quilts. Second Place Winner of the Design and Effectiveness Award of the Washington Publishers Quilts have become a cherished symbol of Amish craftsmanship and the beauty of the simple life. Country stores in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and other tourist regions display row after row of handcrafted quilts. In luxury homes, office buildings, and museums, the quilts have been preserved and displayed as priceless artifacts. They are even pictured on collectible stamps. Amish Quilts explores how these objects evolved from practical bed linens into contemporary art. In this in-depth study, illustrated with more than 100 stunning color photographs, Janneken Smucker discusses what makes an Amish quilt Amish. She examines the value of quilts to those who have made, bought, sold, exhibited, and preserved them and how that value changes as a quilt travels from Amish hands to marketplace to consumers. A fifth-generation Mennonite quiltmaker herself, Smucker traces the history of Amish quilts from their use in the late nineteenth century to their sale in the lucrative business practices of today. Through her own observations as well as oral histories, newspaper accounts, ephemera, and other archival sources, she seeks to understand how the term “Amish” became a style and what it means to both quiltmakers and consumers. She also looks at how quilts influence fashion and raises issues of authenticity of quilts in the marketplace. Whether considered as art, craft, or commodity, Amish quilts reflect the intersections of consumerism and connoisseurship, religion and commerce, nostalgia and aesthetics. By thoroughly examining all of these aspects, Amish Quilts is an essential resource for anyone interested in the history of these beautiful works.

Genres: Quilting, Nonfiction, Crafts, Amish

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2013

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up in Indiana Amish country like (and with!) the author; my own background is rooted in the Reno County, Kansas Amish where my dad was raised Old Order Amish - I own a pink and white quilt my grandmother made that was passed down to me after she died. Despite having done some small projects on Amish quilts during grad school, I only knew a tiny fraction of the info that Janneken packs into this fabulous book. The pictures are gorgeous, the history is accessible, and the questions raised (What is it that makes a quilt Amish?) are thought-provoking. The chapters toward the end about the intersections of Amish & Hmong women and the resulting questions over authenticity and authorship were especially interesting. Altogether fascinating and I loved it.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you pull this book off the shelf you may mistake it for a coffee table book of Amish quilts because it's a large format volume with some full page photos. However it is more text than pretty pictures--a scholarly history of quilts in recent American culture: how Amish quilting developed out of religious and economic situations in the 1800s and was reshaped--one might say rescued from oblivion--when Amish quilts became objects of art in the 1970s, becoming part of the larger story of Why We Quilt Today. Definitely myth-busting and enlightening about Amish craft entrepreneurs. Some of the chapters repeat the same facts and ideas multiple times as if this wasn't originally written as a full-length book, but the author has many important things to say about the question "What makes a quilt an Amish quilt?" despite the portions that get repetitive.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book for Christmas and at first I just looked through the scrumptious pictures and glanced at the text. I felt rather like the old school Playbook magazine readers.

After absorbing the pictures I got down to the text which was quite unlike any previous Quilt book I have read. This was really good information written clearly which challenged some of my previous assumptions about quilts in general and Amish ones in particular.

We live fairly near the area where the Indiana Amish live and as the author is from Goshen, this book really appealed to my eyes and my brain.

If you like a more nuanced and cerebral look at Amish Quilts you will love this book. And the pictures!

[Jonathan Frederick Walz · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT. Reads like buttah.

[Edie Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s no denying that Amish quilts are stunning. However this book was not so much of the quilts themselves as it was learning about the people who made them, how the quilts became popular and the business of selling them. It proved to be a fascinating story.

I found this an excellent book and highly recommend it.

[B. Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Newman’s widow commented when a folk art curator compared her late husband’s work to a quilt, his intention was to explore the “subtle relationships between stripes and ground,” whereas a quiltmaker was “carrying out a simple pattern.”

I have to share some of my favorite quotes, because I loved the thinly veiled exasperation with New York City elites. How they "discovered" the quilts, how they renamed patterns, their shock at how mostly uneducated women had been making modernist art before modernist art, how they defined what quilts were valuable and what quilts were to be considered "Amish quilts." I snorted when I read the above quote because by implying that quilting is just following a pattern she revealed her ignorance. I find the lifting of certain cultures over others to be frustrating at best, and this attitude is prevalent in the art world. This author did not only discuss the misconceptions and misinterpretations, but she delivered some absolutely delicious subtle digs.

"One quilt authority of the 1970s even referred with distaste to the “crepe period” of Amish quilts in which the pieces “often lack the mellowness of the woolen examples.”21 This writer did not understand that many crepes were in fact woven from wool; she probably intended to disparage manufactured fibers like rayon and acetate or early synthetic fibers like nylon."

*chefs kiss* delicious

This was altogether a fascinating look at Amish quilting. Quilts are part of the American mythos and resonate with nostalgic and nationalistic ideals. The myths we've built around quilts as a make-and-make-do, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, fit into an imaginary narrative about quilts that doesn't necessarily place itself in reality. I learned so much from this author, and her extensive bibliography shows how thoroughly she researched her topic. This IS an academic text, but it doesn't read like one.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in the history of quilts and specifically Amish quilts, then this is a great book to learn about them. I've always been fascinated with the Amish and have started quilting so this book looked interesting. It's full of pretty pictures of the historic and modern Amish quilts along with very well-researched information and history on the evolution of the quilts.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Combines interesting and well-researched quilt history with beautiful photos. I've read a fair bit about Amish quilts over the years and learned so many things I hadn't known by reading this book.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed and thoroughly researched. Didn't read every single word, but interesting in its scope.