African Canvas Memory Quilt Milestone

The African Canvas Memory Quilt™ series is 25% complete! When complete, the series will consist of 100 quilts. Each one is unique, numbered and signed.

African Sunrise is number 25 of the series. It is for sale at the Underground Railroad Quilt Code Museum along with other quilts that are part of the African Canvas Memory Quilt™ series. If interested in purchasing African Sunrise or other quilts in the series call the Underground Railroad Quilt Code Museum at 404-525-1580.

A gallery of some of the earlier quilts in the series can be viewed at http://www.africancanvasquilts.blogspot.com/.

The above article appeared in the Fulton County Daily Report. 

Decorating with Quilts

Don’t practice to the point of failing to share your quilts. After all, you are the only one who knows what it is supposed to look like. If there is an imperfection, just say it was part of your creativity. Or, subscribe to the Amish view: “Only God is perfect!”

I was inspired by the book Decorating with African Fabrics to share my quilts with my co-workers after we expanded our office space. The quilts are a great conversation starter because they are an unexpected surprise in a law office.

Recently the press did an article on my office quilts. Take a look.

The Spirit of African Design: a Book Review

By Sharne Algotsson and Denys Davis




I love looking at pictures of beautiful homes and visiting model homes. I try to figure out what makes it home to the inhabitant. After all, a house is not a home until you walk in the door, exhale and say, “Aha! I’m home.”

The Spirit of African Design inspired me to surround myself with the things I love. In my case that happens to be quilts. I expanded that theory to include my office. After all, we spend most of our time at work.

Need some inspiration for getting in touch with your deepest roots? Check out the Spirit of African Design.

Practice! Practice! Practice!

Flowers and Tea For Me

I recently took my 13-year-old daughter to her first live jazz concert. Lizz Wright was the main event. My daughter, who has loved jazz all her life, stared in awe at the bass player. “He makes it look so easy,” she marveled as she undoubetedly reflected on her attempts to teach herself to play alto saxophone.

“That’s because he has practiced all his life to be ready for this moment,” I replied. We settled back to enjoy the concert, and I secretly hoped my daughter had learned a life lesson.

In the Brown Sugar Stitchers Quilt Guild there are some extraordinarily talented quilters. There are also some beginners. I am sure the beginners are intimidated by the masters. During show and tell, it is easy to think, “I could never do that!”

I say to my sister quilters: PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE! You will be amazed at what you can do if you. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Go for it!

I make lots of quilts for no other reason except to practice. Lately, I’ve been practicing my appliqué stitch. Tea and Flowers for Me is my most recent practice quilt.

Protecting Your Quilts: A Book Review

I discovered a little book recently entitled Protecting Your Quilts. It contains useful information about insuring your quilts and caring for your quilts so that they will be preserved for future generations. The book also contains a nice glossary of quilt terms.

There is nothing earth shattering in the book, but sometimes it’s helpful to have your common sense confirmed. The book is published by the American Quilters Society and sells for $6.95.

Brown Sugar Stitchers Make Quilts For Hurricane Katrina Victims

Members of the Brown Sugar Stitchers Quilt Guild gathered October 2, 2005 to make quilts for a family victimized by Hurricane Katrina. In assembly line type fashion, the members made eight quilt tops in one afternoon. The quilts included African coin quilts, Tessallation Stars, Rail Fence, Orphan Blocks, Crazy Nine Patch, Square-in-a-Square, Scrappy Blocks and Paneled (for a baby).

Members Bessie Barnett, Cathy Johnson and Maxine Moore took the initiative and got the ladies organized. The owner of Quilting Essentials quilt shop in Stone Mountain, Georgia graciously donated the use of her classroom for the quilters to gather to make the quilts.

Other members of Brown Sugar Stitchers who participated were Roz Newell, Laura Sorton, O.V. Brantley, Marva Swanson, Anita Crosby, Thea Crosby, Maudry Orphy, Nina Moore, Sonia Mack, Patricia Landry and Jocelyn Carter.

American Folklore Society Explores African American Quilts in Atlanta

The American Folklore Society will hold its annual convention in Atlanta October 19 - 23, 2005. The conference will be held at the Renaissance Atlanta Hotel in downtown Atlanta.

During the Saturday, October 22d session there will be concurrent panel discussions that explore African American quilts. One panel is entitled “Ethnographic Complexities in the Study of African American Folklore” and will be chaired by Patricia A. Turner. Topics include the following:

· 8:15 a.m. Deborah Smith Pollard (University of Michigan, Dearborn), Praise Is What We Do: Praise and Worship Music in Detroit's Black Church Community.

· 8:35 a.m. Carol L. Hall (Alabama A & M University), African American Quilts and African American Communities: A Case Study of Gee's Bend.

· 8:55a.m. Susan Roach *(Louisiana Tech University), Re-Presenting the Quilts of African Americans in Lousiana and Beyond.

· 9:15 a.m. Patricia A. Turner *(University of California, Davis), Southern Comfort: Black Quilts and Black Colleges.

· 9:35 a.m. Diana Baird A. N'Diaye *(Smithsonian Institution), Discussant.

Another panel is entitled “The Underground Railroad Quilt Code” and will be chaired by Laurel Horton. Topics include:

· 10:15 a.m. Courtney Brooks (East Tennessee State University),Contravenes, Quilts, and Codes.

· 10:35a.m. Laurel Horton *(Kalmia Research), The Underground Railroad Quilt Code: Traditional Narrative Strategies in Promoting a Good Story.

· 10:55 a.m. Marsha MacDowell *(Michigan State University Museum), The "Secret Code" in Quilts: Creating Authenticity.

· 11:15 a.m. Deborah R. Grayson *(Georgia Institute of Technology), Who Can Speak For Others?: Race and Place in Debates About Hidden in Plain View.

Registration for the Saturday session only is $25.00. Registration opens at 8 a.m. and the first panel starts at 8:15 pm.

For more information about the American Folklore Society visit the web site at www.afsnet.org.

Link

From the Mouths of Slave Quilters

My trip to Savannah caused me to pull Civil War Women by Barbara Brackman off the shelf and read it. Chapter 2 is entitled “Remembering Susie King Taylor and Other Freedwomen.” Through diaries and other recorded history, the author conveys a sense of how quilting fit into a life of slavery.

As mentioned in my previous posting, there seems to be constant debate about whether slaves liked being slaves if they had nice masters. (Absurd, in my view)! I think the reason some people think slaves were happy being slaves is because of their love of music. No matter how bad things are, put on some music and we will dance. In Civil War Women, she quotes from the diary of Martha Watkins, a slave woman, as follows:

“We had a fine time last night with just our own people and Payton to play the violin and banjo, and Simon played on the tambourine. Susan had a quilting and after we got the quilt out they had to dance instead of a supper…”

We love a party don’t we? But the following quote from the diary of Grace Brown Elmore is a sobering statement of how most slaves felt when the party was over.

“I asked Philis if she liked the thought of being free. She said yes, though she had always being treated with perfect kindness and could complain of nothing in her lot, but she had heard a woman who had bought her freedom from kind indulgent owners, say it was a very sweet thing to be able to do as she chose, to sit an do nothing, to work if she desired, or to go out as she liked and ask nobody’s permission.”

Grace Brown Elmore
May 24, 1865

That statement certainly captures how I feel about life.