gee's bend

this link comes to me from my mom ("umm as-sifr"). ye gods.

anyway, umm as-sifr, she went to see a traveling show about these amazing quilts. she's a quilter, she made the quilts that lay on my bed as a child and even now. i'm even thinking of learning some mad skillz from her myself because i need a replacement, the old baby is wearing out.

anyway, there were slave plantations on a remote-ass island in the alabamy river. in 1850, the original owner, hen gee, sold his plantations to new management, his kinsman hen pettway. then, of course, the war of northern aggression kicked the south's ass but subsequent leadership was too stupid and reactionary to ensure this victory remained solid, so the plantations kept on chugging and life just got worse. the freed slaves took the surnames gee and pettway and worked the plantations, only now they weren't property and therefore no longer a concern for damages.

let's fast-forward. life on gee's bend, as the island was thence known, went on. it was so isolated that until only very recently the only way to get on or off it was by pole-boat. the inhabitants made quilts for themselves, but were isolated from "the modern quilts" - the national cultural and artistic movements within the quilting world from about 1850 on.

but the quilters didn't just make boring quilts - no, they invented their own artistic traditions. and man, can those women quilt. the patterns and designs they and their ancestors devised are magnificent; even more so because they are hand-sewn from bits of extra cloth and worn-out clothing and bulk courderoy and the like.

the 50 or so women of gee's bend have formed the gee's bend quilters' collective, from which quilts can be purchased and to which the proceeds of the museum tours will go.

i highly recommend you explore the website quilters of gee's bend for yourself. it is a remarkable artistic tradition, even more so for its independence from "mainstream" quilters and quilting. they are magnificent works of art.

thanks, umm as-sifr.(hi, mom!)