Overview

In 2010 and 2011, with tens of thousands of quilt records, as well as journals and quilt ephemera on its way, QI developed a standardized format for Essays, Galleries, and Lesson Plans to offer users thematic ways to access the QI resources and to offer opportunities for researchers and users to present sets of QI items for others to read, view, learn and use.

The materials on this page were made for these authors during that time period. If you are interested in submitting something, please contact the QI.

Getting Started

The Quilt Index staff group will need to know whether you will be authoring an essay, and/or curating a gallery, and/or authoring one or more lesson plans.

If you are unsure about the form or content elements of the three genres––essay, gallery, and lesson plan––please see the links below for representative examples of each genre.

Essay: See “Since Kentucky: Surveying State Quilts” by Shelly Zegart, http://www.quiltindex.org/since_kentucky.php
Gallery: See the gallery, “Mary Gasperik: Quilts Made with 1930s Quilt Pattern Sources” http://www.quiltindex.org/gallery.php?id=5
Lesson plan: See, “A Quilt Mystery!: Abigail Adams and the Mystery of the Broderie Perse Quilt,” http://www.quiltindex.org/amanda.pdf

We will also need to know the topic(s) of your contribution(s). You can let us know by filling out a quick survey form available online at http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2sftss8g6mcti42/start. Even if you have already informed one or more Quilt Index staff of your topic(s) and mode(s) of presentation (essay, gallery, or lesson plan), please do still fill out our authors’ survey at the url above.

There will be three staggered deadlines for your submission(s): October 15, 2010 and February 15, 2011. You may choose either of these as the target deadline for completion of your contribution, but please let us know which you will be choosing.

Thank you for taking the time to complete our authors’ survey, and looking forward to working with you!

Submitting a Gallery or Essay

If you send us an MS word document with the placement of the images indicated, including the image's "kid" number, we can work our magic and create a gallery or essay! You can find the "kid" number by looking the url when viewing a quilt record. It is the hyphenated six digit number at the end of the url. For example, 22-42-11.

If you have a hard time finding these numbers, you can create a separate image list with the basic metadata for the quilts instead, and we can find the "kid" numbers.

Gallery vs Exhibition

A sample gallery text with incorporated image numbers is pasted below, so you can a feel for our gallery format. This section represents a mini-gallery. You might think of each section of text and quilts as a "gallery" and the whole set of galleries as an "exhibition".

Patriotic Quilts through the Civil War Era
Political and cultural events such as the Civil War shaped patriotic quilts not only through pattern names such as “War Between the States,” but more also by changing their styles and vocabularies over time. From the birth of the Republic through the antebellum period, the American eagle of the Great Seal was the most popular patriotic motif and original designs featuring the Federal Eagle in appliqué were very popular. Fine example of this are the Garnhart Quilt, a medallion quilt from Maryland dating to circa 1830, and an eagle quilt from Illinois made by Helen Gilchrist Ferris dating to c. 1848. Further, before the Civil War, it was uncommon for individual families and business to fly the American flag (this was usually reserved for government buildings and the military), but from the beginning of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, flying national flags became extremely popular in both the North and South, and the flag became the chief patriotic motif in folk art. Patriotic Quilt Variation and Patriotic Quilt, both dating to around 1865, the final year of the American Civil War, show a transitional period in patriotic folk textiles. Patriotic Quilt Variation features the older federal eagle motif within a central medallion on the newer style, the American flag quilt. Patriotic Quilt, however, features the stars and stripes alone, an expression of patriotism that has maintained its popularity in quilting to the present day.
• Garnhart quilt kid=46-7A-2B
• Eagle appliqué kid=16-33-C9
• Eagle quilt kid=46-7A-AF
• Eagle Medallion kid=47-7B-A1E
• detail kid=47-7B-F6A
• detail kid=47-7B-F6B
• Original Design kid=50-8A-1027
• Applique Original Design kid=47-7B-36A
• detail kid=47-7B-D44
• Patriotic Quilt kid=46-7A-C6
• Patriotic Quilt variation kid=46-7A-D4
• Flag quilt kid=4A-7F-720
• detail kid=4A-7F-CBE
• Patriotic flag quilt kid=4A-7F-A03

Creating & Formatting Your Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan Brainstorming

For ideas for your lesson plan, you may wish to consult lesson plans already published on the Quilt Index at http://www.quiltindex.org/lessonplans.php. Also, the Quilts & Curriculum section of this Wiki is a useful place to find additional quilt-related Lesson Plans, a short bibliography of Quilts and Literature, and more.

Formatting

Please see the Quilt Index Lesson Plan Template, which serves as the formatting guide for the lesson plans. Please include each section of the template in your lesson plan.