Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Bernard L. Herman, Dept. of Art History. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1973. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

This thesis juxtaposes a historical and ethnographic account of a highly organised women's activity -- quiltmaking -- with an examination of feminist discussions on art, craft, leisure, culture and folklore. In describing and analysing the quiltmaking revival in Australia, I attempt to show how quiltmakers have collectively constructed a space in which they avoid, and indeed, deconstruct, some of the ideas and practices which constrain women. As a case study, quiltmaking reveals the practical 'workarounds' that these women have found, which enable them to take time and space for themselves in the face of family responsibilities, to be creative and proud of their artistic efforts in the face of conventions of womanly modesty, and to arrange their own public events in the face of training in silence and backroom support. In so doing, they break down the divisions between professional and amateur, commercial and voluntary, and even public and private. For the most part, feminist analysis has ignored or misunderstood such women. Although feminist philosophers, academics and artists have often used the products of traditionally feminine crafts as metaphors, examples and parables, they have not always done so with knowledge or familiarity. My study of feminist art and craft writing suggests that this is because of a complex interaction between the political and strategic needs of academic feminists at different times and a lack of detailed attention to the actual creative choices of such women, who often refuse the label 'artist', though they are indubitably cultural producers. Similarly, feminist theorists and researchers of leisure have been concerned with why women do not choose the same leisure activities as men, but have discounted the specific pleasures of traditional women's skills, and the homosocial organisations they inspire, as positive reasons for the choice of such activities. Cultural studies analysis, with its emphasis on the products of the commercial media has underestimated the popularity and importance of voluntarily organised cultural production, such as quiltmaking, especially when such production has not been seen as politically interesting. Feminist folklore studies provides the only model for research which takes such activities seriously, and pays attention to the complex ways in which they both subvert and support women's traditional roles.

Thesis (M.A. in apparel, merchandising, design and textiles)--Washington State University, December 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 2, 2009). "Department of Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles." Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-58).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1982. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 25).

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-135). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Waikato, 2006. / Title from PDF cover (viewed March 5, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-173)

The research question for this thesis arose from the author's desire to find ways to integrate into her sense of Self her personal experience as woman and mother and to be empowered by that. She sought a source of empowerment that affirmed the life honouring, spiritual and ecological values that were being highlighted by the mothering experience. The connection is deepened further by the recognition of a time when these values were incorporated into the earliest of human creation stories, from watching the creative cycles of the seasons, and the bodies of women in the gestating creation cycles. The body which forms the presentation of this thesis is in two media, text and the visual arts. It is expressed and interpreted in three parts: through the texts of the book, 'The wheel of the year : seasons of the soul in quilts' and the research document, and through the visual medium of artquilts in exhibition which symbolise the Old European and Celtic seasonal celebration. The process for construction of this research has been to piece together the fabrics of two women's research groups' life experiences, and the author's own personal reflections on her life and theirs, through the creative process of mothering, patchwork quilting and participating in seasonal ritual / Master of Social Ecology (Hons)