The International Honor Quilt (also known as the International Quilting Bee) is a collective feminist art project initiated in 1980 by Judy Chicago as a companion piece to The Dinner Party. The piece is a collection of 539 two-foot-long quilted triangles that honor women from around the world. Through the Flower, Chicago's not-for-profit organization, gifted the collection to University of Louisville Hite Art Institute in 2013 to be available for research and to exhibit.
Background
Creation
In Judy Chicago's autobiography, Beyond the Flower, she discusses initiating the International Quilting Bee, stating that "people would be invited to submit their triangular quilts...honoring women of their own determination. By doing this, I intended to provide an opportunity for community participation and also to counter another criticism that had emerged, this time about my choices of women."
Community collaboration
Individual Quilt panels were often created by groups of women after viewing or hearing about Chicago's Dinner Party. For example, a group from the Chrysallis Center at Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan, visited the Dinner Party exhibition in Chicago in 1981. Returning to Saginaw via bus that evening, they decided they needed to create a quilt panel and submit it to the project. Under the leadership of Rosalie (Riegle) Troester, an English instructor at the University, and Trish Nowicke, Campus Minister, a group of fourteen students created a multicolored butterfly wing (IQB-352) representing the growth stage it symbolizes as well as the student career counseling and support center of which they were members. They completed the project and forwarded their creation to Through the Flower for display in the next Dinner Party venue, Montreal.
Description
The International Honor Quilt is a collection of 539 panels of triangular quilts honoring women, women's organizations, and women's issues.
Women represented
Mythological, religious, fictional
Deborah
Demeter
Eve
Isis
Loch Ness Monster
Nancy Drew
Persephone
Virgin Mary
Well-known women
Abigail Adams
Agatha Christie
Ana Lupas
Anaïs Nin
Anna Pavlova
Anne Frank
Annie Oakley
Betty Friedan
Billie Jean King
Chiang Ching
Corrie ten Boom
Dame Cicely Saunders
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Eleanor Roosevelt
Elizabeth II
Ellen Powell Tiberino
Emily Brontë
Emily Carr
Emma Lazarus
Emmy Noether
Eva Hesse
Florence Nightingale
Frida Kahlo
Fumiko Kaneko
Georgia O'Keeffe
Gertrude Stein
Hannah Szenes
Helen Keller
Imogen Cunningham
Isadora Duncan
Jane Addams
Janis Joplin
Joan of Arc
Joan Baez
Joy Adamson
Judy Chicago
Kathe Kollwitz
Katie Sandwina
Lorena Hickok
Louise Nevelson
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Sanger
Maria Montessori
Marie Curie
Marie Stopes
Mary Anning
Mary Cassatt
Mary Daly
Mother Teresa
Nancy Crow
Nellie McClung
Nikki Giovanni
Paula Modersohn-Becker
Pearl Chase
Pearl S. Buck
The Pointer Sisters
Rachel Carson
Rebecca Nurse
Ruth Asawa
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sojourner Truth
Sonia Delaunay
Sophie Scholl
Vonda N. McIntyre
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Women's groups and organizations
American Association of University Women (A.U.W.) (several panels) East Bay Heritage Quilters League of Women Voters National Organization for Women (N.O.W.) (several panels) Shakers
Countries represented
Women from around the world wanted to be a part of the feminist spirit of The Dinner Party as it toured. Twelve countries are represented with over 136 known municipalities. The University of Louisville's Digital Archives has detailed information about locations of all the quilt pieces.
United States – (35 known locations) Canada – 105 Australia – 30 (21 known locations) Germany – 27 England – 12 India – 5 Austria – 3 Scotland – 3 Romania – 2 South Africa – 2 Israel – 1 Japan – 1