Members of multiple generations sit around a quilt frame in a photograph captioned “quilting party,” showcasing a typical 1930s scene, characteristic of a family pulling together to overcome hard times, making something beautiful and useful from leftover fabrics, that will both lift their spirits and keep them warm at night. Yet one detail in this domestic photograph is amiss: the women have their needles in the quilt where there are already clear lines of running stitches holding together the three layers of the bedcover. From the angle of the camera’s lens, the quilting appears complete, not in process, suggesting that this photograph and perhaps the quilting party were staged.