Iconography of the Newfoundland quilt: piecing together meaning on the Great Northern Peninsula

Abstract

The Newfoundland Quilt is part of a pervasive textile-based craft practice on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. This quilt type consists of between sixteen and thirty fabric blocks, each block containing an iconic symbol or scene that is of contemporary and/or historical relevance to outport Newfoundland. This thesis highlights some of the more commonly quilted icons in order to demonstrate the ways in which an individual might use a quilt 's surface to express a range of regional values, nostalgic sentiments, and personal beliefs. In discussing these factors, this thesis also highlights quilting as a textile tradition in Newfoundland, by demonstrating the ways it has undergone shifts in form, function and meaning, as the culture itself has faced myriad changes. Since the majority of people who make these quilts are at a post-retirement age, this study connects quilting practices to advance stages of life, as the quilts become a way for older people to address the inevitable changes they have witnessed to their culture, to their physical bodies, and to the places that they call home. The Newfoundland Quilt type is therefore emblematic of the ways in which individuals use creativity to help generate and affirm of both individual and shared senses of identity, meanwhile helping them to confront the changes to the culture around them.