INSTAGRAM: Saving the World One Quilt at a Time

The Old Lady Card

"What is this new-fangled Instadamngram?"

We've all been playing the Old Lady Card for too long.

If you look at quilts and fabric on the social media site Instagram you definitely see a slant towards what we might call:

Young People.

Modern Quilts.

Contemporary colors in Fabrics.

Solid fabrics.

Quilts inspired by contemporary graphics rather than traditional quilt design.

Here's a selection from the top posts on

#quiltshow.

Nearly 7,500 posts already up there on the day I looked.

Here's

#applique

202,000 posts on the day I looked.

That could keep you busy.

Or put you to sleep.

Disaffected Youth

I feel sorry for those young people. They never see any quilts on this extremely popular site but what they post themselves. To me it's frankly

BORING!

Mary Cassatt, the Reader

Collection of Crystal Bridges Art Museum

When I was young we had bound books to look at, which gave you a wide perspective on quilts, particularly rich in showing antique quilts.

My favorite was the annual Quilt Engagement Calendar

from Cyril Nelson & Dutton Publishing

The social media sites seem to be short on antique quilts and even shorter on recently stitched traditional quilts based on antique design and style.

More Disaffected Youth

If all you see are the same quilts over and over you will make the same quilts over and over and pretty soon you will get bored too.

Bored young people can turn to crime.

Aesthetic crime.

Perhaps taking up other handiwork.

Don't EVER do a web search for Beer Can Hat!

Now that I am retired I have plenty of time to play with my phone. The main problem with Instagram is that you can only post from your phone. (And you might have to get a new phone.)

I've decided to save the world one traditional quilt at a time... I got a new phone and I am posting traditional quilts on Instagram under a variety of tags.

#machineapplique

2.500 posts.

You can see a difference already in the #handapplique page. Guess which posts are mine.

I also started my own page.

#pastperfectquilts

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/pastperfectquilts/?hl=en

I've been posting pictures of quilts that I think are fabulous examples of traditional style, reproduction quilts, repro prints, etc. using the established tags. You might recognize your own quilt up there. I try to give you credit and link to your Instagram page (another topic for another day.)