The Union County Quilt project is about bringing together women and art through scraps of linen created and saved in garment production.
Linen is a super important fabric, not only is it the oldest fabric (it’s origins dating back to ancient Egypt) but it also shaped the world we live in today by its very production. In the 1500’s every farm had a flax field for making linen. The men would grow, harvest, and break the linen and the “women’s work” was carding, spinning, and weaving it into cloth. People would trade labor and commodities with each other to get everything they needed. This pastoral scene was interrupted when producers started getting organized with the formation of guilds, but nothing could compare to the price or quality of the farm spun linen. So the guildsmen devised a plan; remove women from the linen market (even from their own guilds). Eventually this lead to women loosing their rights to everything, expect linens.
I feel like it's a social responsibility to continue to work with linen and not waste a single scrap. This is an on-going project where I'll be creating yearly quilts inspired by other women and their work. The first one is simply based on the Blue Mountain range in Union County Oregon. The second is Summer Lake, and from here these will be my loose translations of art work made by some of my favorite women artists.
Union County Quilt #1 - Blue Mountains
Size: 79" x 98"
Union County Quilt #2 - Summer Lake // Sheila Dunn
Size 79" x 98"
