The quilt seemed elusive to me with its warmth, intention, and care handed down from generation to generation. I didn’t have a quilt passed down to me.
I asked my dad and there are no textile artists or seamstresses in our lineage. I asked my mom and she showed me the lace her grandmother made her — an heirloom, finally. Who gets to know their history?
Growing up in the south, the quilts I encountered were those gifted down family lines from grandmothers, usually those of my white friends. Studying the patterns, the many shapes cut from fabric, sewn together, it seemed like such a painstaking process. Who gets to claim enough time in this world to make a quilt?
The relationship I have with the idea of a quilt began with those quilts and informed my initial wondering of who gets to make quilts— beautiful heirlooms of a pleasant history, to be handed down.
Who gets to sit with their emotion in stillness and create something of beauty, integrity and utility?
Because, quilting didn’t seem to be for those who were burdened by time (namely, thoserobbed of timeby systemic confines.)
Who, after all, wants to hand down that sort of resentment or pain?
When I found out about Gee’s Bend quilt-makers and their legacy, I was heartened and in awe.
Quilts like the Gee’s Bend community that are beautiful in their utility, service and the way they challenged the tradition with their improvisation or material and color.
I wondered— were my ancestors so tired they couldn’t gather the strength to make a quilt for warmth? And I ask not in a disparaging way, but in an answer seeking way.
Regardless, of whether they had more pressing concerns, or not the space or interest to explore the possibilities of a handmade heirloom, they’re not to blame.
After the beginning of the pandemic, I became inspired to start a new tradition of generational intention toward softness, ease, and care. Quilts have allowed me to make stillness to hand down — peace for family birthed and chosen. We should all be allowed an opportunity to build generational peace, ease and comfort. We should all get to make a quilt if we want to.
— Artist Bio, Atlanta Contemporary 2022