Wow I am humbled, I have just come across the most amazing quilts all made in by the beautiful creative women of GEES BEND, ALABHAMA.
striking powerful colours, their abstract vision, made from scraps of clothes, bed sheets, work clothes, some from as far back as the Great Depression.
These women have amazing stories, heart wrenching stories of the depression, the hardship and struggle, and yet there there were making scrap quilts to adorn the walls to keep out the wind in their cabins and to keep their children warm and night
Watching one of the videos on you tube one lady said these words
” Back then nobody had nothing and everyone was happy. Now a days everybody has everything and everybody is unhappy”. These ladies may have talking about quilting, but to those who will listen they teach the best life lessons.
We can all learn from these beautiful women.
I tell you it bought tears to my eyes, these are REAL quilts made from somewhere deep in the soul
Missouri Pettway, 1902-1981. Blocks and strips work-clothes quilt, 1942, cotton, corduroy, cotton sacking material, 90 x 69 inches. Missouri’s daughter Arlonzia describes the quilt: “It was when Daddy died. I was about seventeen, eighteen. He stayed sick about eight months and passed on. Mama say, ‘I going to take his work clothes, shape them into a quilt to remember him, and cover up under it for love.’ She take his old pants legs and shirttails, take all the clothes he had, just enough to make that quilt, ahd I helped her tore them up. Bottom of the pants is narrow, top is wide, and she had me to cutting the top part out and to shape them up in even strips.”
