Dear God Children fleece online

Thanks to my cousin - she just forwarded to me this link to one of the Dear God Children's fleece prints. This one is from Hancock Fabric, which has the print on sale for a low $5.99 per yard!

Seven Quilts for Seven Sisters

This group of seven stitching sisters will be performing in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania during February. In the photo are Anna Stevens, Kathleen Lindsey, Bertha Kellum, Ida Rowe, Phyllis Walker, and Elnora Gardenhire.

The Seven Quilts for Seven Sisters group performs skits, songs, dances, and quilts to bring slave history alive. The goal of their "lively performance depicts the joys of sisterhood and the trials of slave life and how quilting helped them cope." The sisters also have a CD, "Down By the Riverside" featuring sixteen songs sung a cappella. There's a 1 minute sample on their website of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Their voices are marvelous!

Call Phyllis Walker, one of the Seven Sisters at 856-478-6811 or send your request via email to cornyw@aol.com if you'd like the CD ($12.95 + $2.50 shipping) or are interested in booking the group.

1830s Slave Quilt - $40k - $60k

I LOVE watching Antiques Roadshow. Each season there seems to be old quilts brought in for appraisal. Here's a photo of one slave quilt made in the 1830s. The quilt was from a Mr. Polk's estate. Mr. Polk was a slave owner. The current quilt owner, Danny from Walterboro, South Carolina, had also purchased inventory documentation from Mr. Polk's estate as well to substantiate the quilts provenance. The Nancy Druckman of Sotheby's in New York examined the quilt in a 2004 episode... and estimated the auction value to be from $40,000 - $60,000!

Do you have a piece that you'd like to have the Antiques Roadshow appraise? Tickets for the 2007 have JUST opened for online requests. The show will visit: Baltimore on June 16, Orlando on June 30, San Antonio on July 14, Louisville on July 28, Spokane on Aug 4, and Las Vegas on Aug 18. Gotta go see what's up in the attic.....

NY Times - UGRR Quilt Controversy

Check out the January 23rd edition of the New York Times. There's an article about the controversy surrounding the $15.5 million Frederick Douglass Circle being built in Central Park. The plans call for a large granite quilt - with quilt blocks sharing slave escape routes. Algernon Miller is the memorial's designer. Several historians are challenging the memorial on several fronts: 1) there is no documented evidence that secret-coded quilts ever existed, 2) there is no connection between Mr. Douglass and these quilts, and 3) to memorialize secret-coded quilts is to give credence to a myth.

There are several websites that discuss in more details problematic aspects of secret-coded quilts. Check out:

• Patricia Cummings recent article "The Secret Quilt Code and The Underground RailroadCommentary or How Does Telling Lies Honor Black History?"
• Kimberly Wulfert's collection of Quilts & The Underground Railroad articles
• Leigh Fellner's Underground Railroad "Quilt Code" research - available as free PDF

What do you think? Will a historian ever find documented records of secret-coded quilts used by slaves?

Update 4/3/07 - Check out article in Time Magazine, with quotes by Roland Freeman and others.

Mary Lee Bendolph

Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee’s Bend Quilts, and Beyond exhibit opened January 20 until April 15, 2007 at the Paine Art Center and Garden in Oshkosh, WI. The 72-page exhibit catalog is available from Amazon.com.

"Twelve dramatically designed, richly colored quilts created by Mary Lee Bendolph, Louisiana P. Bendolph, Aolar Mosely, and Essie B. Pettway, are presented alongside complex and evocative found-object sculptures by Alabama artists Thornton Dial and Lonnie Holley, who have both been influenced by the quilts and the quiltmakers. Several fine art prints by two of the quiltmakers and documentary films about the artists provide a further context for their creative exchange." - from the Paine Art Center & Garden website.

Dorothy Montgomery, SC Quilter

Charleston, South Carolina's Times & Democrat newspaper recently published a feature article on Dorothy Montgomery, retired music teacher and quilter. She has more than twenty (20) quilts featuring African American musical stories on display at the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center's Lusty Gallery through March 9. Miss Montgomery will speak at a Meet-the-Artist reception on Feb. 1 from 6 - 8 pm. The exhibit is free.

Miss Montgomery wrote A Legacy of Twelve: Notes from a Musical Scale Create Many Styles. She has stitched more than 40 quilts since starting to quilt in 2001. You can see more of her quilts on her website http://www.legacyoftwelve.com/. I wish I could see her quilts in person!

St. James Place Museum - NC

Travelin' near Robertsonville, North Carolina? Stop by the St. James Place Museum, a converted 1910 Baptist church. Dr. A. Everette James, Jr. created the musem, which houses more than 100 North Carolina quilts, including 42 African-American made quilts and hundreds of pieces of North Carolina pottery.

Facts and Fabrications: Quilts & Slavery

Barbara Brackman's Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery: 8 Projects, 20 Blocks, First-Person Accounts is now here. The chapters include a timeline of slavery and freedom 1619 - 1964, a historical search regarding quilts and slavery, various block patterns with names such as Star of Africa, Christmas Star, Aunt Dinah, Creole Puzzle, North Star, Lincoln's Platform and more. For those who teach quilting to children, there's a chapter on making a doll-sized quilt and answering children's questions related to quilting and slavery. I think it's a must-have book for your quilt library. Enjoy!

Juanita Yeager - 2007 Symposium

Juanita Yeager is hosting Quilt-Fiber-Art Design Symposium in four sessions during July 2007 in Durham, North Carolina. The sessions are open to all quiltmaking levels from beginner to expert. According to Yeager's website, the "symposium is a combination of lectures, demonstrations and hands on practice sessions. In this format a variety of techniques useful for making contemporary traditional quilts and art-quilts will be taught with ample time allowed for hands on experimentation by all participants." Visit Juanita's website or email her at jyquilts@mchsi.com for more details. The photo here is of Juanita's own quilts titled "Come Sunday Morning."

Harlem Needle Arts - Lincoln Center

Harlem Needle Arts: My Brothers' Thread: A Retrospective of Fiber Works by and for Men of the African Diaspora" fiber and textile arts with additional work from the Harlem Girls' Quilting Circle are on displayed at Lincoln Center, New York at Cork Gallery: Avery Fisher Hall. January 11–30, 2007.

Read about Harlem Needle Arts founder, Michelle Bishop (in photo), from a 2005 AOL Black Voices article, "Promoting Quality of Life One Stitch at a Time."

Do drop a note about the exhibit if you have seen it! Thank you!

Patricia A. Montgomery - new website

Take a moment to visit sistah quilter Patricia A. Montgomery's new website, Dragon Art Place. She showcases her fabric collage Dream Shields (such as the one shown here), quilts, decorative pillows, and installation pieces. Be sure to sign her guestbook. Go, Patricia, Go!

African American Fiber Arts Symposium

Anita Knox shared with me the following: "The Kansas African American Museum will present a symposium by many well established African American fiber artists from across the country June 8 – 10, 2007. Lectures and workshops highlighting unique and innovative non-traditional and traditional techniques in quilt making, wearable art, surface design of fabrics and doll making will be offered during this three-day event.

"The symposium will close with an artist’s market and wearable art fashion show. Presenters include: Liani Foster, Washington, D.C.; Aundra McCoy, Memphis, TN; Sammie Nicely, Atlanta; Rosemary Reed, Washington, D.C., and Patricia (Trish) Williams, Chicago, IL. The Kansas African American Museum is located at 601 N Water Street, Wichita, KS 67203. Registration for the symposium will be available after March 10, 2007."

Eatonville Quilters - Zora Festival

The Eatonville Quilters (FL) - A Celebration of Community Tradition - January 20 - April 27, 2007 at the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts. Based on field research conducted by folklorist and oral historian, Worth Long, this exhibition features the craft of Eatonville matrons ranging in age from their early 60s to their late 80s. Collectively and individually, the quilts express a creative energy and commitment to fine workmanship. Sewn to provide warmth and comfort, these coverings, through their vibrant colors and intricate patterns, allow the viewer to contemplate the gift of incorporating beauty as an essential element in everyday, household objects.

• Jan 20 - Opening Reception free tickets as part of Zora Neale Hurston festival

170+ attend NC exhibit opening

Dianne Caesar, Executive Director at the Delta Arts Center in Winston-Salem, sent me a wonderful email about the opening of the "Sampler & Symmetry" exhibit of African American-made quilts. Dianne shared that more than 170 attended a lecture on quilts and the Underground Railroad by Phyllis Bailey. There was also a very-well attended, free teens quilting workshop with kids from the Winston-Salem Chapter of the Top Teens of America and the New Bethel Baptist Church Senior Girl Scouts, #355, from High Point, NC. Thanks to the Delta Arts Center for teaching a new generation of quilters!

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Samplers & Symmetry NC show

Delta Fine Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina presents Samplers & Symmetry - traditional and contemporary quilts by ten African American area residents showing 18 quilts - from January 7 - February 3, 2007. According to a Winston Salem Journal newspaper article, the sistah quilters include Kathy Bolar, Rochelle Brandon, Delores Foster, Parphenia Ford, Teddy Fowler, Barbara Griffin, Billie Matthews, Clementine Mauney, Peggy Moore (Board President) and Camilla Reeves. If you visit this show, will you share your thoughts about the quilts!!

Francelise Dawkins - Silkollages

One abstract quilt artist I admire is Francelise Dawkins. She perfected an abstract style she calls "silkollages." Have a look at the World Quilt Project she completed with a group of 45 children in Saratoga. The kids used 1,500 different pieces of fabrics from around the world to make four-panel quilt. I can't wait to see Francelise's 2007 creations!

Black Crafters Guild

If you get a moment, click over to the Black Crafters Guild website, "a free, nonprofit resource for African-descendants (Black) who create, decorate, or artistically alter items by hand" since 2003. See all types of crafts, including award-winning quilts from sistah quilters such as Sharon Ceaser.

Detroit Crafts Blog - Joycelynn Brown

Motor City crafts? Check out the Detroit News' Crafts blog hosted by Joycelynn Brown. Read news about knitting, crocheting, dollmaking, beading and, of course, quilting.

Trish Williams - Chicago group exhibit

Are you Chicago-bound? Check out sistah quilter Trish Williams's works in the group exhibit Winter Delights Stitching Salon featuring her quilts, "an extravagant crochet sculptural installation by Mike Andrews; handmade hardwood eyeglass frames by Scott Urban; hand-dyed and hand-printed T-shirts by [Im]Perfect Articles; innovative jewelry crafted from recycled eyeglass lenses by Maggie Joyce; and an oversize knitting installation by Pate Conaway" at the Chicago Tourism Center from Jan 2 - Feb 28. (Aren't Trish's quilts, like this one in the photo - Two the Waters - marvelous?!) Congratulations Trish!