Gee's Bend Quilts

A decade or so ago the quilts of Gee's Bend created a pretty big splash in the worlds of arts and crafts, deservedly so. Here's an intro to the quilts from Wikipedia:

The Quilts of Gee's Bend were created by a group of women who live in the isolated African-American hamlet of Gee's Bend, Alabama. "The compositions of these quilts contrast dramatically with the ordered regularity associated with many styles of Euro-American quiltmaking. There's a brilliant, improvisational range of approaches to composition that is more often associated with the inventiveness and power of the leading 20th-century abstract painters than it is with textile-making," writes Alvia Wardlaw, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Their style is what I like to see in art. I'll post a couple images here, along with descriptions, drawn from the Auburn University website devoted to this wonderful work. Please visit there to learn more about the artists.

Mary Lee Bendolph, born 1935. "Housetop" variation, 1998;
quilted by her daughter, Essie Bendolph Pettway, in 2001,
cotton, corduroy, twill, assorted polyesters, 72 x 76 inches.

Lillie Mae Pettway, 1927-1990. "Housetop"-- twelve-block "Half-Log Cabin"
variation, ca. 1965, cotton, wool corduroy, 77 x 65 inches.