I quilt because I think I have the quilt gene.....I have a quilt from every generation of my mother's family going back to my great grandmother to my grandaughter.......There is something in me that yearns to touch colors and fabric texture and sew them together in some kind of pattern----it soothes my heart and eases my soul......
I know that sounds kind of gooey but it is better than therapy!

too long and boring try STITCHED...must better!

I think quilting now is an outlet for stress reduction, creative expression as well as creating functional quilts, wall hangings etc to provide our homes with beautiful touches.
good luck

I would also give examples of large art displays of quilts like the one last year in New York of all the Red and White Quilts. There's the Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY. I would incorporate the historical significance of quilting and how it's recorded history.

I made a powerpoint of the History of Quilting that I used in my classroom as well for several community organizations and our quilt guild's biannual show. I would be glad to share it with you if you PM me your email.

Good Luck!!

Sewing and quilting was once a necessity. It comprised a part of every woman's day. Quilting evolved from patches to intricate design. It became a means of artistic expression, connection with other women in political movements, ie temperance, abolition, and voting rights. Technology began to produce textiles in abundance. Quilting became a pastime, a hobby, some years very popular, such as in the thirties the economy was tight even for working people.

Technology has provided quilters with tools that make the pastime even less time consuming. There still is no need to produce bed coverings but the hunger for artistic expression remains.

I got an A in history based on the quilt and the paper that went with it. Good luck.

Quilting is also a method of personal expression for me. Besides that, I feel the quilts I gift to my children/grandchildren are something personal from me that will last through the years, with reasonable care, and will remind them of me after I'm gone. I mean really, how many grandchildren visit tomb stones these days? And a beautiful, personally designed quilt is so much more meaningful and cheerful!
Also, quilting is therapy for me - when I get too busy to sew for a while, I'm not too pleasant to live with!
Quilting is also a history of our country. Just looking at some of the hand piece and quilted examples from past years, usually made with scraps of clothing of the era, is a history book in a blanket. While it was a task of necessity, it also was an expression of art, probably when there was next to no other way available for the beautiful women of yesterday who worked so hard every day.
I just love quilting and quilts~!

I'm sorry I haven't read all the posts so this may be a repeat...but, what popped into my head when I saw your major was accounting was how much I hated math when I was in school (high school and college). If only I had known I was going to use so much math in my favorite, life long hobby of sewing which morphed into quilting several years ago.

My daughter had to take a make up math class one summer. I always took along the English Paper Piecing queen sized quilt I was working on when the kids were in class or sports and I had to wait. One particular day I was laying out all the pieces an the stone wall in front of the school where I was parked. Apparently the teacher looked out the second story window and called all the students over to witness math in real life. Boy was my daughter embarrassed! I never saw it coming!

If you are giving a speech, I think your topic of quilting is too broad. You could teach a whole semester on the topic! You need to narrow the field so it doesn't become "mush". Maybe you could demonstrate the tools of grandmother and the ones of today, explain the difference in the cost of a blanket and a quilt, the differences in fabrics, etc. But even these may be too broad. Narrow your topic and I think you will not have as much trouble with the process.

I am curious as to who your audience will be and the purpose of your speech. Will it be given to only accounting majors? Will you be convincing them quilting is a good hobby or a good industry to use their new accounting degrees? Are you wanting to show the impact of quilting in the fabric industry, small business shops, larger stores such as JoAnn's, i.e,, local community tax bases through quilt shows, quilt fabric shops? If your speech isn't tied into accounting then what is the reason for it? Or is this just for another class that you had to take and any subject will do?