The Quilts of Gee's Bend

By Susan Goldman Rubin

“How homemade quilts created in rural Alabama became modern art . . . A handsome volume to enchant a new generation of readers and artists.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Since the early nineteenth century, the women of Gee’s Bend in southern Alabama have created stunning, vibrant quilts. In the only photo-essay book about the quilts of Gee’s Bend for children, award-winning author Susan Goldman Rubin explores the history and culture of this fascinating group of women and their unique quilting traditions. Rubin uses meticulous research to offer an exclusive look at an important facet of African American art and culture.

In the rural community of Gee’s Bend, African American women have been making quilts for generations. They use scraps of old overalls, aprons, and bleached cornmeal sacks—anything they can find. Their traditions have been passed down through the decades. Much to the women’s surprise, a selection of the quilts was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2002. The exhibition then traveled to the Whitney Museum in New York City. “Eye-poppingly gorgeous,” wrote a critic for the New York Times about the exhibition. He continued, “Some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art also exhibited its newly acquired collection of Gee’s Bend quilts in 2017.

“Rubin tells the story of a folk art form passed down through generations in a small corner of the Deep South . . . a celebration of fellowship and ingenuity.” —Publishers Weekly

“A colorful introduction to a uniquely American subject.” —Booklist (starred review)

“[A] fascinating portrait of an indomitable community.” —School Library Journal

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781683350521

Susan Goldman Rubin

Susan Goldman Rubin is the author of many nonfiction books for children, including Stand There! She Shouted: The Invincible Photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and The Quilts of Gee’s Bend. She lives in Malibu, California.

Book preview

To my friend Ann Whitford Paul, writer and quilter

Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-1-4197-2131-1

eISBN: 978-1-6833-5052-1

Text copyright © 2017 Susan Goldman Rubin

For illustration credits, see this page.

Book design by Melissa J. Barrett

Published in 2017 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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The Area of Gee’s Bend, Alabama

Stacked Bricks, 1928, Nettie Young.

One Patch, Diamonds variation, circa 1975, Mary L. Bennett.

When Nettie Young was eleven years old, her mother gave her a pile of cloth strips and told her to make a quilt all by herself. Nettie had always sat with her mother and watched her quilting, picking up the scraps at her feet, but this time her mother walked away. She was testing her daughter to see if she was independent as well as talented. The cotton and corduroy scraps were in different colors and patterns: plaids, checks, dots, even a little yellow animal print. The odds and ends came from old work shirts, dress tails, and aprons. Looking back, at age eighty-nine, Nettie said, When I was growing up, you threw nothing away. . . . You found every good spot for a quilt piece, and that’s how you made your quilts.

Nettie arranged the strips to form squares in a brilliant geometric design. She called her finished quilt Stacked Bricks. From then on, she became known as one of the best quilters in Gee’s Bend, Alabama.