I was never into quilting, but after reading the first article below, I have a new respect for the craft. In short, quilting is a way to tell the story of your family so that future generations will have yet another way to know some of the details of their ancestors. Do your children know what made your great grandfather laugh? How about your grandmother’s favorite recipe? This may be a good avenue for some of you who want a creative way to tell the story of your family.
How to make an African-American quilt Family histories woven with spontaneity, improvisation
By Rosiland Bentley, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
January 1996, and Wilma Gary’s husband was dead.
Fifty-three years of lovin’, childbearin’, bill-payin’, hard-timin’, overtimin’, gran’babies, sickness and health with Printice T. Gary had ended.
But each Wednesday morning she goes to her quilting group at Sabathani Community Center in south Minneapolis, her bag of cloth in her hand and images from her marriage in her mind. And she sits with the six other ladies and one gentleman — some widowed, some not — and with each piece of cloth they stitch together, a bit of Ms. Gary’s life will close.
A patch of blue for the day she met him at a Howard University freshman/sophomore open house. A gash of white for the pot roast and biscuit suppers she cooked for their growing family. A stitch here, a tear or a laugh there.
The quilt is not yet finished and neither is Ms. Gary’s grieving. But in a way, she is making a textile record of their life together, a mourning cloth that will one day be passed down to her grandchildren. But for now, it will help her cherish her years with Printice T.
Earlier this year, Ms. Gary and the members of the Sabathani Quilting Group were featured artists at the “African-American Quilt Day” celebration at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. There were 27 quilts on display, including Ms. Gary’s, and each had its own orders, rhythms and meanings. Yet none followed traditional white American quilt forms — one or two types of fabric, a precise design and a stitching pattern without deviation.
The quilts lining the gallery walls are like the ones made by three generations of black men and women in Ms. Gary’s Texas family — “nontraditional” or “improvisational quilts,” as quilting scholars and collectors call them. (more…)
Here is a quick link to quilter, Chris Clark (short bio included).
http://www.quiltethnic.com/traditional.html
