Here the story develops the conflicts between gender loyalty and the male-dominated legal system and the importance of evidence of a motive. Therefore, the women’s choice to conceal the evidence they’ve found is a clear act of rebellion against men and the law, a clear effort to help Minnie as best they can. The two women realize that Minnie can never receive a trial from people who will understand or even try to understand her. So they make themselves a jury of her peers who understand Minnie’s actions and judge her as justified
. Knotting the quilt is, of course, a metaphor for Minnie’s act of killing her husband with a rope, and the men miss this metaphor entirely.