International Honor Quilt

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.

International Honor Quilt
Also known as International Quilting Bee
A section of the International Honor Quilt
Artist	Judy Chicago
Year	1980
Type	Collective feminist art project
Medium	Quilt pieces
Owner	The Hite Art Institute
Website	International Honor Quilt

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.

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

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