MAKING HISTORY
Lynette Warren continues the fascinating story of the Gee’s Bend quilts, bringing it right up to date
Lynette S Warren continues her story of the historic Gee’s Bend quilts – and brings it right up to date in her final instalment of this fascinating feature
Family quilts are so amazing because they embody the spirit of family. Quilts created from scraps of used clothing spark stories about family history. What an onlooker sees as a patch of denim may be the story of how someone’s grandfather toiled in the fields, who he worked with, what they grew, who they married, what children they had. Oral histories are tied into quilts. Gee’s Bend quilts were made by people of one community passing the tradition from generation to generation. That is what makes the quilts unique. These quilts have been made by great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers and daughters and have stood the test of time. They are a testament to the strength of family and community.
The Gee’s Bend quilts that propelled the community to fame in the early 2000s were those quilts used in everyday life. These utilitarian quilts were created from excess fabric left from contracts with department stores and clothes which were no longer worn. It was not difficult to part with these quilts as the proceeds from the sale were a help financially.
To date, the quilts of Gee’s Bend have been exhibited worldwide. The quilts are owned by celebrities, politicians, and ‘regular folk’. In 2008
while on his presidential campaign trail, John McCain visited Gee’s Bend and acquired a quilt.
HOUSETOP: INTERNET COMMERCE
Caster Pettway sells her quilts on Etsy. Assisted by the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, she is one of several quilters of the community who has chosen to sell directly using the internet. Her Etsy store, ‘Quilts by Caster’ and Gee’s Bend internet commerce have brought the spotlight back to the Gee’s Bend quilt community. Pettway does not follow a pattern when she makes her quilts. “I look at the fabric and make what comes to mind,” she states. Her quilts are made in the Gee’s Bend tradition of using strips when creating the overall top.
While some have opted to use Etsy to open direct sales stores, The Gee’s Bend Quilt Collective continues to sell the quilts of the community. If one cannot travel to Boykin, Alabama they can connect via telephone and arrange to purchase a quilt. As well as selling quilts, the collective hosts annual quilt retreats for quilt enthusiasts. The retreats allow participants to interact with the quilters of
Gee’s Bend. In addition, the Quilt Collective hosts an active website (see details on p57). The current head of the collective is Mary Ann Pettway. She manages the collective and ensures the building is open to visitors from around the world. Ms. Pettway is an active quilter as well and can often be seen quilting at her sawhorse quilt frame.
GEE'S BEND QUILTS AND MODERN QUILTING
The characteristics of the most famous of the Gee’s Bend quilts make them improvisational as well as modern in definition. The balance of design improvisation, when colour and shape come together in a geometric balancing act is nothing short of magic. Traditionally, quilts like those of Gee’s Bend have not been touted as artwork. Formerly only seen as bed coverings, quilts of all kinds now grace walls at galleries and museums. Acceptance of the quilts in the conventional art world has opened the door to other types of quilting, becoming part of discussions in the often conservative fine art world. Gee’s Bend was one important key that opened the door.
THE INFLUENCE OF IMPROV
The improvisational aspect of the Gee’s Bend aesthetic has had some influence on the modern quilt movement. Seeing the quilts on show in museums inspired many people to become quilters and make quilts like the ones they saw. The quilts from Gee’s Bend are unlike what one might think when ‘quilt’ comes to mind. There is no repeated block or rigid adherence to a distinctly identifiable pattern. So too, are modern quilts often outside of the traditional quilt mould.
The term modern quilting covers a broad range of techniques and materials. Carole Lyles Shaw is a creator of modern quilts and teaches her techniques. There are core principles that dictate what comprises a modern quilt, and not every principle has to be in every quilt. However, there are two approaches Shaw emphasises modern quilters should embrace.
She encourages quilters to be brave and be free. Shaw developed her own quilting technique using improvisation years before even
THE IMPROVISIONAL ASPECT OF THE GEE'S BEND AESTHETIC HAS HAD SOME INFLUENCE IN THE MODERN QUILT MOVEMENT
THE QUILTS HAVE BEEN COMPARED TO ART MOVEMENTS SUCH AS ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM AND COLOUR FIELD
CAROLE SHAW
seeing the Gee’s Bend quilts: therefore, the quilts she produces are not influenced by the work of the quilters. Shaw drew inspiration from the art movements to which the quilts have been compared such as abstract expressionism and colour field. Shaw notes the Gee’s Bend quilts have influenced some modern quilters, but she stresses the importance of the quilts lies in their influence on the way that quilts are viewed overall. Ed Johnetta Miller is a quilt artist. Miller came to the quilt world via weaving and dyeing fabric and the quilts of Gee’s Bend hold a special place in her heart. A resident of Connecticut, Miller actually lived down the street from the daughter of Gee’s Bend quilter, Minder Pettway Coleman. Her strips of her hand dyed fabric were often hung out to dry, and a little boy remarked, “that looks like the quilts my grandma makes”. Miller was pleasantly surprised to find out that his grandmother was one of the quilters from Boykin, Alabama.
When she saw the Gee’s Bend quilts for herself, Ms. Miller loved the improvisation used in the quilts, a technique used in her work as well. “These quilts were not like the quilts I was used to seeing. There was a freedom in them I found inspiring.”
Gee’s Bend influences the world beyond quilting too. Painter Amy Sherald stated that Gee’s Bend was the influence for the pattern on the dress Michelle Obama is wearing on her portrait that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery (see p57).
THE INFLUENCE CONTINUES
The Gee’s Bend community of quilters is growing smaller as people move away from the area and time takes its inevitable toll. However, one cannot predict an end to this tradition as we have seen the quilters of Boykin and their masterpieces contribute to
the quilting world again and again. We see the influence the Gee’s Bend quilts have had on our culture. This influence will undoubtedly resurface as the world of quilting continues to grow and change.
UNITED IN QUILTING
Quilting is community. Whether you started your journey as a child, being initiated into that community by family, or you began by taking lessons with a group of other people, you could not help but recognise that quilting forms a bond. This bond transcends space and time, socioeconomic status, colour and culture and brings us together in a love of fabric and a love of design. We wrestle with craft versus art and function versus aesthetic all the while making it all work together, and often working together.
The gathering of women has many different names; sister circles, Dorcas clubs and sewing bees. Gee’s Bend is much like those women’s circles. And yet, it is also so much more. Gee’s Bend, Alabama has become a pantheon in the world of quilting. Although they are often characterised as reflective of African American quilting, improvisational quilts can be found in every community throughout the country. The improvisational aesthetic, born of necessity, transcends race, culture and class.
Gee’s Bend quilts are special because in those quilts we do find the ‘magnificent in the mundane’. This hamlet in Alabama survived slavery, the Great Depression, Civil Rights and history’s various upheavals. While surviving, the women made quilts, and the quilts they created gave them a cooperative and a collective. Economic vehicles that infused the community with finances that helped them acquire some of life’s necessities. These quilts were brave, and they were free in design and colour.
Gee’s Bend quilts are unique in appearance, yet quilts embracing the same look can be found all over the world. The Gee’s Bend quilts were created for warmth, made from cast-off fabric, used for economic empowerment, and enhanced their world. Because they were shared with our world, they have beautified us all.