Gee's Bend Quilters

The whole group

I spent the last two days in the company of a very interesting group of women. The Gee's Bend Quilt workshop was part of this year's Maiwa Symposium. I first heard of the quilters from Gee's Bend Alabama at the SAORI workshop I took earlier this year. Gee's Bend is an isolated community of a few hundred people in rural Alabama. Even today, it is at least a 45 minute drive to the nearest town - to the closest grocery store, school, doctor's office. There is only one road in and out. The community has had a difficult history. The original inhabitants had been slaves who were eventually able to buy their own property. At one point in the 1930's money lenders took everything of  value from the community, including all their tools, food stores and livestock. The residents have had to be very resourceful, and the woman have been using old worn out clothing to make quilts to keep their families warm for a long time. At some point the quilts of Gee's Bend were "discovered" by the art world. Compared to painting by Matisse or Klee, they have been exhibited in museums in the US and around the world. .

Rita Mae Pettway with me and my Gee's Bend style quilt

The quilts are quite different from the very precise orderly "crafty" quilts that follow rigid rules with straight lines and exact seam allowances. They are full of life and personality and reflect the lives of the people who made them.

Two women from Gee's Bend came to Vancouver for the workshop, Rita Mae Pettway (known as Rabbit) and her daughter Louisiana Bendolph. You can read their stories and see some of their quilts here.

I spent the two days hand stitching a quilt that uses a crazy assortment of fabrics. The powder pink is a corduroy fabric that started out as a skirt I made for myself in the 1980's. I cut it up and made a pair of pants (trousers) for my daughter when she was a baby. There's a lovely green herringbone wool that was left over from a blazer that I hand tailored when I was studying fashion design. A piece of Saskatchewan's tartan also made it's way into the piece. The woman sitting beside me had brought it along. I didn't even realize it was her's until long after I had used it. She was very gracious about it all.

I asked Louisiana and Rita Mae to sign my quilt. The woman who sat around me also added their names. I think I will embroider the names and add one of Rita Mae's quotes "Sometimes I do, but all the time I don't." along the stripes.

Living Room Art in the Heights

On Saturday AD and I took a loom to a really fun annual event. Each year (well, for the past two years anyway), someone in the neighbourhood opens their home up to the community for a one night celebration of the artists in our area. It is a bit like a gallery opening, performance and house party all rolled into one. There were painters, photographers, filmmakers, storytellers, musicians and dancers at the event, each showcasing their art form. You can see more photos from the event on their facebook page.

I sometimes complain that I don't know any arty people in my own neighbourhood, so I always have to go to Vancouver to do art things. It was really great to meet (and reconnect) with so many artists from Burnaby. It was especially fun for me since AD basically took over the loom and spent the evening showing lots of people how to weave. That's her at the loom, wearing a scarf that she wove herself.

Yarn and Fibre Night at Magpie's Nest

Magpie's Nest is starting its fall programming, and I suggested that we have a Yarn and Fibre Night. Everyone brought their own projects, some folks were knitting, others were stitching. I took along a loom land let people try their hand at freestyle weaving. It was awesome, and I hope we can make it a regular thing.