The Women of Gee's Bend

A small remote community in Alabama (pop. 700), represents the genius of a group of exceptional quilters who, for more than a century, have created distinctive works of art for their homes and families. The textile artists of Gee's Bend are the inheritors of a tradition that goes back many generations. The "discovery" of these unique American masterpieces has led to their exhibition in museums including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others.

Windham Fabrics is proud to partner with the Gee's Bend Quilters Collective and present The Quilts of Gee's Bend. It is our pleasure to encourage every quilter to be inspired by the vision and courage of the modern quilting pioneers, and create their own masterpiece. For more information about the women of Gee's Bend, their stories, and their quilts please visit www.quiltsofgeesbend.com.

The great-granndaughter of Dinah Miller who is said to have arrived in the United States aboard a slave ship from Africa - the Clotide which docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama prior to the Civil War. Qunnie learned to quilt House Tops under the tutelage of her mother, Candis Pettway. In 1960 after she married, she found her unique artistic voice and began making patterned quilts including Wedding Ring - which she learned from her sister - Chestnut Bay, Bear Paw and Crazy Z. Qunnie's daughter. Loretta P. Bennett is one of the youngest quilters actively creating extraordinary quilts today.

Revised cutting instructions

"Lazy Gal Variation" - 52" x 62" - Style Number: 30549

The granddaughter of Deila Bennett (1892-1976) ancestor of many quilt makers in Gee's Bend. Mary L. Bennett pieces primarily "Housetop" and "Bricklayer" compositions and imaginative variations on them. As quoted by Mary, "I was born down here in Brown Quarters and got raised by my grandmother. I started out working in the fields for my uncle Stalling Bennett. I didn't get no schooling - every now and then a day here and there. Didn't nobody teach me to make quilts. I just learned it by myself, about 12 or 13. I was seeing my grandmama piecing it up, and then I start. I just taken me some pieces and put it together, piece them up till they look like I want them to look. That's all."

"Housetop - 4 Block Variation" - 57" x 65" - Style Number: 30550

The 7th of 17 children, descends from generation of accomplished quilt makers. She learned to quilt from her mother, Aolar Mosley and a network of aunts and female in-laws. She worked in Alabama fields and attended school intermittently until she was 14, when she began her own family. Bendolph was one of many Gee's Benders who accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. in his march at Camden, AL in 1965. Her quilt making style marries a flair for improvisation to traditional construction techniques that emphasize rectangles and squares. Her minimalist patches, small compositions of cloth, built to create intricate overall compositions that contain humorous touches and autobiographical references.

"Strips & Strings" - 75" x 60" - Style Number: 30552

She made her first quilt at the age of 14. She was raised by her grandmother, quiltmaker Annie E. Pettway and still live in the house that her grandfather built for the family in the 1940s. "Onliest thing we did after everything else was done, was sit by the fireplace in the wintertime and piece up quilts. Me and my grandmama Annie. She didn't have no pattern to go by; she just cut them by the way she know how to make them," say Rita Mae. Piecing quilts, according to Rita Mae, was done individually but quilting "we all did together." Rita Mae, along with her ancestors and her daughter, renowned quilter Louisiana Bendolph share a penchant for creating strip quilts in concentric squares resulting in Housetops and Hog Pens, each artist though has a unique style and variation on the theme.

Adjusted color placements on diagram and cutting

"Housetop" - 52" x 64" - Style Number: 30551