Faculty Publications

Hiding The (Fabric) Stash: Collecting, Hoarding, And Hiding Strategies Of Contemporary US Quilters

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture

Volume

4

Issue

1

First Page

104

Last Page

125

Abstract

In this four-year, seventy-interview ethnographic study of US amateur quitters, I examine the guilty pleasures surrounding quilting practices, including the deviant acts of hiding both identity and fabric from family members and friends. While fabric is the medium of quilting, quitters purchase more than necessary for projects, slowly building up and hoarding a fabric stash. They then strategize hiding places for their fabric/Women's anxieties surrounding acquiring, hoarding, and hiding their fabric stashes highlight their diminished ability, relative to their spouses and their children, to pursue leisure activities without a stigma. Collecting and hiding the fabric stash become symbolic of women's attempts to carve out time ad space for themselves amid the multiple demands placed on them by such greedy institutions such as family and the workplace. © 2006 Berg.

Department

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Original Publication Date

3-1-2006

DOI of published version

10.2752/147597506778052449

Link to Full Text

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