quiltersmuse.com Blog

Book cover of “This I Accomplish …”

This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers’ Bible Quilt and Other Pieces by Kyra E. Hicks (Black Threads Press, 2009) is a hot-off-the-press, 180 page book. Bill Gaskins wrote the Foreword. The author chronicles activities surrounding the quilts of Harriet Powers (1837-1910), a former Georgia slave. The two appliquéd quilts Powers made are currently held by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. As mentioned on the back cover, Hicks tracks two nineteenth century women who sought to buy the Bible quilt, and offers the profiles of three men who actually owned the Pictorial Quilt.

Many of the facts revealed are newly-discovered, by the author, and appear in her book for the first time. This new information will be a welcomed resource to the libraries of every quilt historian. For those who have always wanted to know the full history of these quilts, to the present time, information is given as to where they have been exhibited, who has written about them, who has mentioned them in lectures, and more! This scholar provides almost 200 bibliographic references, most of them annotated. Derivative works, such as poetry, and photos of quilts made in honor of Harriet Powers are included, and serve as a fun treat.

This is an amazing compendium of factual data surrounding the making and the keeping of the two Powers’ quilts. Congratulations to Kyra E. Hicks for her thorough research of the works of Harriet Powers, a very important African-American woman who once sold one of these quilts to a white woman named Jennie Smith, receiving only $5.00 in compensation.

This book is long overdue and is a wonderful tribute to a now much beloved American quilter. If you are already thinking ahead to Christmas, this book would be a nice one to add to your wish list. But, why wait? You may just want to order a copy now, for summer reading! Already, Kyra Hicks, a veteran writer, is hard at work on her next book, another related to African-American quilting! Quilter’s Muse gives this current effort a two-thumbs up!

ISBN: 987-0-9824796-5-0

Be sure to read Kyra Hick’s blog that she frequently updates:
http://blackthreads.blogspot.com

As an aside, let me add that, for a time in the early 1990s, the Smithsonian licensed reproductions of the Harriet Powers’ Bible quilt to be manufactured overseas. I turned my nose up at one of these reproduction quilts at Sam’s Club. I did not want to pay even $19.99 for the poorly-made quilt that featured about two stitches per inch of hand-quilted stitches. The price was low enough: $19.99. Even with the poor workmanship, the quilts quickly sold out. Under pressure from American quilters who actively fought the Smithsonian policies, the overseas reproduction of our American treasures soon ceased.

See images of Harriet Powers and her quilts here.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

Last night, I stumbled across the “Sisters In Stitches” website. This is the web presence for the only African-American Quilting Guild in New England. We attended several of their shows, in the past, and were not disappointed.

They have another one coming up this year, in Roxbury. The details are available on their website. I wish I could attend, but we find it too confusing and upsetting to try to drive through Boston, a maze of one way streets, and where one has to be the correct lane for turns, etc. It’s easy to get lost. For “old people,” like us, we just can’t handle it. If you don’t already know, Roxbury is more or less a suburb of Boston.

A great quilt, taken at a lousy angle, at one of the “Sister in Stitches” shows. To learn more about this quilt, visit our show reviews, linked below.

I wondered if there was a stated list of attributes of African-American quilts online. The Sisters in Stitches’ site provides a nice overview of typical design elements as well as the parts of Africa from where African-American people came. One has only to look at one of the books that feature photos of Gee’s Bends quilts to understand some of the qualities of quilts that are listed.

Design elements can include, but are not limited to, the use of African hand-woven, or African commercially-produced fabrics, asymmetry, large shapes and strong colors, appliqué (as in former slave, Harriet Powers’ famous Bible quilts), inclusion of religious symbols and protective charms. The great tradition of storytelling by town griots (wise keepers of oral history in African towns) may be reflected in some quilts. Certainly, the storytelling tradition is present in Harriet Powers’ Bible quilts. Lists are fine for brief explanations but not if they lead to a superimposed aesthetic.

Can someone who is not African-American make an African-American quilt? No, but that quilter can make an “African-American style quilt.”

Vest designed by Patricia Cummings that includes fabric with African Masks

In my opinion, it is a cop-out when someone makes a sloppy quilt in garish colors and calls it an “African-American” quilt. That person has just not bothered to learn the rudimentary steps of quiltmaking. I have seen this happen. Like Dave Barry, “I am not making this up.”

It is equally strange, when a quilt shop run by a Caucasian women offers classes in “How to Make an African-American Quilt.” Again, I am not making this up, although this situation did happen quite a while ago.

Being informed about another culture, cultivates a better appreciation of their needlework and quilt traditions. You know something? When we attended the shows mounted by this very creative group, “Sisters in Stitches,” the quilt patterns were innovative, but also strongly-grounded in traditional quilt designs. I remember a quilt based on “Tumbling Blocks,” but with a humorous twist!

You might like to visit the two show reviews we have on our website – 2001 Bridgewater, MA Show; and the 2005 Holbrook, MA Show.

I have a problem with others trying to pigeonhole groups of people and make them seem as homogenized as milk. We cannot make sweeping generalizations. I would hate to think that my quilts are what they are because I am an aging, Caucasian, female. Stereotypes just don’t work. We don’t all fit into any given mold, whether we are White or Black or Green. Quilters are always innovative, no matter what color their skin. We can find more that is alike, rather than more that is different. In the end, we are all “Sisters” – “Joined by the Cloth.”

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications and Virtual Museum

Last night, I was pleasantly pleased to learn that an article I had written for The Quilter magazine, entitled, “An American Quilt Myth? The Secret Code of the Underground Railroad” by Patricia L. Cummings, (NJ: All-American Crafts Publishing, Inc., 2004,) 72-75, was cited in a 748 page book titled, Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion by Junius P. Rodriguez which discusses the objections of historians and quilt scholars alike to the “secret quilt code” (on pages 407-409), as described by the 1999 book, Hidden in Plain View, written by Raymond Dobard, Jr., Ph.D. and Jacqueline Tobin.

The Monkey Wrench quilt block was one that was mentioned in the secret quilt code. The actual “Monkey Wrench” tool was not invented in America until 1850, making the block out of sync, time-wise, with the major, earlier time period when Black Americans escaped from slavery. This is just one of the discrepancies in the “secret quilt code,” as set forth by the late Ozella McDaniel Williams. Quilt block constructed by Patricia Cummings for educational purposes.

The Rodriguez book was published by Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., as part of a series called “Greenwood Milestones in African American History, Ser.” The 10 digit ISBN number is 031333272x. The expanded version is ISBN 13: 9780313332722, and the book was published in December 2006.

On pages 407, 408 and 409, there is an entry by Glenn Reynolds. At the end of that information, the published works of Fergus Bordewich, myself, Leigh Fellner, Virginia Gunn, Marsha MacDowell, and Giles Wright, are cited.

Two sentences toward the end of the author’s remarks are presented here:

Although the authors’ (Dobard and Tobin) assertion that primacy in the case should be given to the rich tradition of African American oral history, the lack of supporting evidence remains a plaguing problem. Not only has the book failed to spark any verifiable stories from others to help validate Ozella’s (Ozella McDaniel Williams) claims, but the rich oral testimony collected from ex-slaves in the 1930s by Works Progress Administration workers also fails to mention the use of secret quilt codes. (etc.) – Glenn Reynolds

I am happy that someone has been listening because the proliferation of this quilt myth throughout our school systems, particularly, has been discouraging to scholars who have tried to apply logic and known facts about history and quilt history to this subject, to counteract Dobard’s “informed conjectures.”

Alas, there is a “Gott im Himmel!”

See my extensive writings on this subject, on our website. Here is one article: The Underground Railroad and Quilt Blocks. There is also an audio file: The Secret Quilt Code.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

“Living the Dream,” by Diana Bracy

Asheville, North Carolina, April 28, 2009 – More than 50 quiltmakers inspired by President Obama have been interviewed for Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories, an oral history project for the Alliance for American Quilts. Throughout the presidential campaign, Karen Musgrave, volunteer and co-chair of the project, kept reading stories and seeing more and more images of quilts inspired by Barack Obama. Wanting to capture this moment in our history, she began interviewing those quiltmakers for Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories. These interviews have been added to the more than 900 interviews in the project.

“I want to thank all the quiltmakers who shared so openly their thoughts and experiences in the interviews. This “feminine medium” continues to take ordinary materials to create something of great meaning and to provide us with an important glimpse of our history,” said Musgrave.

The quiltmakers were eloquent about what inspired their quilts. Carolyn Crump, a gifted art quilter from Houston, Texas who employs an unusual three-dimensional appliqué style, said, “I don’t know too many people that listened to his speeches or came in contact with him that didn’t want to be a better person … The quilt that I designed is part of me and when I’m dead and gone that quilt is going to be here, and that is part of me that I left behind saying this man touched my life.”

Indeed, like several of the quiltmakers interviewed for the project, Crump said she isn’t done making Obama quilts: she plans to make a total of 44, tracing his path from childhood to the presidency.

Detail view of “From Vision to Victory,” by Carolyn Crump

All the quilts and the stories behind them are a unique expression of the maker’s impression of the “Obama phenomenon.” Now that Obama is President, these quilts have become even more significant. The quiltmakers represent a broad spectrum of political views from avid Obama supporters, to Hilary supporters, to staunch Republicans. Their skills range from beginner to professional. Participants also include those from two exhibits, “Quilts for Obama: An Exhibit Celebration of our 44th President” and “President Obama: A Celebration in Art Quilts.”

Many of the quiltmakers drew upon the iconography of the campaign. Others took the literal image of Obama a step further and used elements of culture and Pop Art in their quilts, while others simply did a literal interpretation. The themes of family, patriotism, Africa, civil rights and hope were also popular.

“Obama Equals Hope,” by Jeanette Thompson

The Alliance for American Quilts is a national non-profit organization that supports and develops projects to document, preserve, and share the history of quilts and quiltmakers. The AAQ brings together groups and individuals from the creative, scholarly and business worlds of quiltmaking to advance the recognition of quilts and their makers in American culture.

Specific questions about Q.S.O.S. can be directed to Karen Musgrave, karenmusgrave@sbcglobal.net or call 630-579-1024.

Photographs of the quilts can also be seen as an online book at http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/qsos/Obama_qsos.php.

For further information, please contact:
Amy E. Milne, Executive Director
(828) 251-7073
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org

This press release is published by Quilter’s Muse Publications as a public service.

Patricia Turner’s new book, Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters has just been published, according to UCDavis New Service. Information is offered under the press release title, “New Book Examines Black Quilts From Slavery to the White House.” An Obama quilt adds charm to the written overview of the book. The author is a veteran of many articles and books about the Black experience. A list of titles she has written is available via the last link, just provided.

I have ordered the book, keeping an open mind that it will be informative and not slanted or in error. My greatest hope is that it does not provide more false history about Black people, particularly, in regard to their quilts and their role in the Underground Railroad. (No proof exists that quilts had any role in escapes). For some time now, historians and quilt historians have been adamant about speaking out to correct the fallacies that have arisen and that are being happily promoted in our schools as fact, rather than fantasy.

Always a student, I am willing to learn. With that thought in mind, I hope that Dr. Turner provides solid information, not more speculation, or a “he said, she said, they said, we said” format to her new book. With baited breath, I await the arrival of this work.

A compelling piece of writing, online, by Patricia Turner, is titled, “The Rise and Fall of Eliza Harris: From Novel to Tom Shows to Quilts,” in which she states that the ice blocks that were the means to safety in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin have been replaced by quilt blocks. I think you will enjoy reading this lengthy essay.

I hope that you will take a look at these new reading possibilities on the subject of African-Americans and quilts. It is important not to engage in revisionist history that is unsubstantiated. As always, knowledge is power.

To see a colorful array of Underground Railroad minis, check out this flickr file.

Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications