Quilting as a gendered activity: a study of male & female quilters' beliefs and perceptions of their art/craft

The recognition of quilting as a valid art form by scholars, art critics, visual artists and quilters has attracted the attention of contemporary society enabling both men and women to identify quilting as their preferred choice of medium for artistic expression. Recent studies have investigated quilting from a female perspective but have neglected to include a male perspective. I decided to investigate how the gender of the individual quilter could be connected to differences in perceptions of quilting experiences. Establishing my own perspective of the quilt medium, I provide an explanation of my research methods and offer a brief overview of quilting literature before presenting the responses of five male and five female quilters participating in a qualitative study. The areas explored are: the medium of quilting, the motivation for quilting, the behaviours/habits and contexts of quilting, the relationship between gender and quilting and quilting in school curriculum. Also, I provide a comparison between contemporary literature and the data findings to indicate how the small sampling of quilters from my study compare to the perceptions held by present-day quilters. In conclusion, I discuss the implications my research has for art education and indicate further directions available for quilting research.Education, Faculty ofCurriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department ofGraduat