Introduction: textile politics -- Queer handmaking; The Cockettes' crafty genders; Harmony Hammond goes down -- Threads of protest; Cecilia Vicuña's concepts and quipus; Arpilleras, "tapestries of defamation" -- Remains of the AIDS quilt, Piecing the names, 1985-1992; Crafting conflicts, 1992-present -- Afterword: the currency of cloth