The Space Quilt

"In 1961, when American president John F. Kennedy announced a goal to land a man safely on the moon by the end of the decade, Americans knew they were going to take on a technological challenge. This event would change the way mankind had regarded the cosmos since the beginning of time.

This quilt embodies the American ‘can do’ attitude that made the moon landing and the entire space program a reality. The makers- sisters- also pay tribute to their father an air force fighter pilot in WWII. Designs on the quilt represent the history of U.S. space flight. Blocks include Rocket Boys, the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and space shuttle missions and the International Space Station. The outside border is a written history of the missions, starting with Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier through the first space shuttle launches. Included is a memorial block for the astronauts who lost their lives in the space program. Working together as a team, the sisters made the quilt possible just as all the American space launches were made possible by teams of scientists, engineers, and other dedicated people.

The structure of the quilt is a nod to the medallion quilts of the late 1700s and early 1800s. The outer triangular border is a take on the sawtooth borders seen on American quilts of the early 1800s. The written record of the missions’ members recalls the signature quilts popular in the U.S. around 1840. The side vine and fantastical flower borders reference the printed cotton palampores that were imported to Europe and the colonies in the 1600s and 1700s. Such textiles were as technologically advanced for their day as space travel was for the 1960s. Finally, classical feather quilting is present, but at the tip of each feather asmall spaceship is quilted. The entire quilt is machine pieced, appliquéd, and quilted, showing that Americans can take an existing technology and- using classical forms- make it vibrant and new. That is the American ‘can do’ spirit!"