How the Amish Make Quilts Without Electricity
It’s sometimes unbelievable and simply amazing what the Amish are able to do without the use of electricity. While it really wasn't that long ago that none of us had the luxury of electricity, it’s difficult to imagine life without it today. Think about it, what would your life be like today without electricity? You wouldn't have lights, computers, phones, microwaves, televisions, dishwashers, air conditioning, hair dryers, washing machines, video games, or just about anything else that we as a society have come to love and depend on in our daily lives. This is what it’s like to be Amish every single day! Because they have shunned the use of electricity, the Amish have learned to live without it and have managed to do pretty darn well in spite of it.
Many people don’t understand why the Amish don’t use electricity and find it difficult to relate to this type of lifestyle. The Amish have purposely chosen to live their lives separated from the rest of the world at large. While they are not totally isolated from society, they are about as isolated from the influences of modern technology as any group of people can be. The Amish do not accept the use of electricity because they consider it to be a direct connection to the very world that they are trying to avoid. When electric lines began making their way across the country and into every home and business around the world, the Amish made a very conscious decision to not allow electric lines to be brought into their homes and businesses. Because electricity comes from a main power grid that connects all the lines together, the Amish decided this was a connection to the evils of the modern world and chose not to be a part of it. The fact that they have stuck to their guns for the past one hundred years or so shows their tenacity and strength of conviction and faith.
This, however, has posed an interesting situation for the Amish. While Amish communities pride themselves on self-sufficiency and production, they seemed to manage to make things much more difficult for themselves as modern technology has sped past them like a speeding bullet. Fortunately, the Amish wouldn’t have it any other way. Over the years, the Amish have come up with some pretty inventive ways to compensate for their lack of electric equipment. For instance, Amish dairies rely on the sale of milk and dairy products to the surrounding community to sustain themselves. When the government began regulating dairy production, they required that all dairy farmers refrigerate their milk while it was being stored on the farm. This was a major problem for the Amish farmers because they were prohibited by the Amish church from using electric powered milk coolers. So, instead they found that they could use diesel generators to power the milk coolers to keep the milk properly refrigerated. At some point, the Amish realized that the generators could also be used to compress air which was stored in tanks to be used for powering water pumps while they were still being used to power the milk coolers. This meant that the Amish no longer needed to rely on windmills to get their water pumped from the wells. This compressed air idea was then expanded and today the Amish use compressed air to run washing machines, sewing machines, hand mixers, blenders, and power tools. In addition, the diesel generators are also used to charge car batteries which the Amish use to power headlights and taillights on their buggies, which are now required by law. These portable batteries are also used to power smaller appliances such as fans, glue guns, and even cash registers in the Amish family businesses.
Which brings us to the question of how Amish quilts are made without the use of electricity. Amish quilts are so admired by the non-Amish world due to the fact that they are one of the few things that can be bought today that are considered truly handmade, however, this is not entirely the case. The Amish purchase factory made fabrics in order to sew their own clothing, bed sheets, linens, and other household items. If they had to spin and loom their own fabrics in addition to the million other things they have to complete throughout the day they wouldn’t have much time for anything else. These fabrics are also used in making Amish quilts. Scraps or blocks of different fabrics are cut and stitched together either entirely by hand or through the use of a sewing machine. Now, since most sewing machines of today are electric powered, the Amish instead use either a people-powered or diesel generator powered sewing machine. A sewing machine that uses people-power is one that has a treadle attached to it that is rocked back and forth using the sewer’s feet. This causes the sewing machine wheel to spin which causes the needle to move up and down in order to sew the materials together. Generator powered sewing machines are much more powerful and are almost as fast as electric powered sewing machines. No matter what method is used in making the Amish quilts, whether by hand, treadle, or generator, these quilts are still a unique expression of the Amish community as a whole using hand made ingenuity. The entire quilt is then stitched together with the batting and the bottom piece to produce the finished product.
Of course, much of this work is done during the winter months when they can quilt during the day while the sun is still up or under the limited light provided by a kerosene lamp. As you can imagine, this is probably the worst part of having to make an Amish quilt. The lack of light makes the task of sewing tiny stitches into the quilt that much more difficult than it could be. However, it is this kind of determination that makes the Amish quilt such a desired product around the world. The fact that these beautiful expressions of creativity and art are created under such strict conditions makes them even more special and valuable to own.
