Day in the Life of an Amish Quilter
Life for the Amish quilter in general is not easy. Without benefiting from the modern conveniences that we all take for granted, such as electricity, automobiles, and telephones, the Amish choose to shun these technologies in order to live a simpler life. However, a simpler life does not mean an easier life. Imagine, for a moment, what it might be like to live your life without televisions, video games, computers, cell phones, cars, central heating and air, interior electric lighting, microwaves, hair dryers, or any electricity whatsoever. To most people today, this would seem like an impossible task. While some Amish communities do use generators or natural gas to power some of their household appliances, it’s just not the same as having a whole house full of electric powered devices. If you think about it, our modern lives have become dependent upon our modern conveniences, things that the typical Amish family has no use of or experience with. Being an Amish woman today is perhaps doubly hard as they are responsible for everything from raising the children to keeping the home to providing additional income for the family and the Amish community at large. Consider for a moment, what life must be like for an Amish woman and quilter today.
Life for an Amish quilter starts well before the sun comes up, usually around four or five o’clock in the morning. A few moments of quiet solitude are usually enjoyed before her family awakens and the day begins. She might start a fire to warm the home for the rest of the family or to prepare for cooking the morning meal. As the family arises, everyone does their morning chores, which can take about one to two hours every day. The Amish quilter might spend the morning doing the family’s laundry and hanging it on clothes lines to dry in the open air as the sun rises. She then might tend to the family livestock by feeding the pigs and chickens, cleaning the pens, and gather any eggs or milk that might be needed for the morning meal. The Amish quilter then prepares breakfast, which usually consists of eggs, pancakes, fried potatoes, shoofly pie, canned fruit, milk, juice, and cereal. Before breakfast, however, the family is gathered together around the table and silent prayers are made. The Amish quilter and her husband will then discuss the chores and activities that must be done that day and may assign the children various tasks that will need to be taken care of when they arrive home from school. After breakfast, the Amish quilter prepares lunch for her husband and the children and they leave for work and school.
If there are older girls in the Amish quilter’s home who have completed their studies, they will stay home and help with the chores that need to get done around the house. Otherwise, the Amish quilter is usually left alone for the rest of the morning. An Amish quilter is responsible for the cooking, cleaning, sewing, washing, gardening, and yard work around the home. After cleaning the kitchen following the morning meal, she might need to do some sewing or mending of clothes that her husband or children may need. Since the Amish generally don’t buy clothes at a clothing store, the Amish quilter is usually an expert seamstress since she is responsible for the clothes her family wears. The Amish quilter might then head outside and tend to the family garden. This can include a variety of flowers, vegetables, and fruits that she grows during the spring and summer months in order to use for the family’s daily meals or to be canned for use during the fall and winter months. In addition, the Amish quilter must mow the lawn using a push mower and pull the weeds that might be growing in and around the family home.
It is only after the household chores and yard work are done that the Amish quilter will take the time to work on her craft of quilting. While the husband is considered the head of the household and is responsible for the majority of money that comes into the home through farming, woodworking, construction, or other means of employment, Amish women are also expected to provide income to the family. This can come in the form of quilting, sewing, baking, cooking, or canning the fruit they grow in their gardens. These products are then sold in the local markets or through their own family run businesses. Only women who are particularly suited for and adept at the traditional methods of Amish quilting will choose quilting as their ‘career.’
Because the Amish do not use electricity that comes from the city run power lines, much of the quilting they do is by hand. However, this does not mean that it is all done by hand. Many Amish quilters use treadle powered sewing machines or electric machines that have been retrofitted to use generator or gas power to piece their scraps of cloth together. The Amish quilter will spend the early hours of the afternoon cutting and piecing together her Amish quilt designs, usually to take advantage of the afternoon light. Most of the quilting an Amish quilter does is in the fall and winter months when there are less chores to do and the weather keeps them indoors. Amish quilters might also get together with the other women in the community and assemble their quilts together at a quilting bee. Individual top sheets that are done in the home usually are made during the colder fall and winter months, while the community quilting bees occur in the spring and summer months to complete the quilts as a group.
After the children return home from school and their husbands arrive home from work, the Amish quilter prepares the evening meal and completes any remain chores. At the dinner table, the family discusses the day’s events and what has been accomplished. After the table has been cleared and the dishes put away, the Amish family will spend a quiet night at home reading under gas or propane fueled lamps or playing board games. The Amish quilter might spend some more time working on her Amish quilt or writing letters to distant relatives. Once the sun has gone down, the evening prayer is said and everyone gets ready for bed. The Amish quilter is the last to retire and will again be the first to arise the next day where it will all start over again in the same way it has for generations.
