Thank you for the article. The quilts are fabulous - I got to see them in exhibit here in Houston many years ago. Making one is on my bucket list. I am using the Medallion Variation Quilt pattern adapted by Debby Kratovil.

Jan, I had not seen this website so thanks for posting. In 2003, Auburn University have been researching the Gee's Bend Quilts, along with other universities. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/other/geesbend/home.html I believe in 2009 or so Windham put out Gee's Bends Kits done in Windham solids- saw them at Tuesday Morning. Windham Fabrics acquired the rights from each of the original designers, asked Debby Kravotil to write the patterns. Each pattern download is $8. http://www.craftsy.com/patterns/quil...rtBy=relevance

Love these quilts. I saw an exhibit of some of them at the Milwaukee Museum of Art. Wonderful! I found it interesting that they sometimes used corduroy in the quilts...whatever was available to them. How many of us include corduroy in our stash?

Funny, I had just discovered the Souls Grown Deep site myself this week while searching for information on African American quilters and quilting traditions. It is a fascinating site and worth reading through the many biographical pages where the individuals describe their lives in Gee's Bend and their quilting styles and process. In my reading I learned that rather than choosing the name Pettaway, people were forced by the land's owner to either take the name or leave their homes. Having few other options, many changed their names and stayed.
I also found it interesting that this very modern, artistic style developed pretty much completely within this small community, with almost no outside influence. Very few women used patterns, and they describe working mainly from their own imagination and doing variations on common themes and blocks traditionally used there. They were in effect "painting" with cloth. They viewed their quilts as utilitarian items, with little value other than their intended use, but nevertheless used quilting as a means to create something beautiful. I think that for many of these women that would have been one of the few venues where they could truly do exactly what THEY wanted too ( hence few patterns-- just another way of someone telling you what to do). Alice Walker discusses this same thing I her essay " In Search of Our Mother's Gardens". Finally-- to end this very long post-- corduroy was both available and made very warm quilts, which was important since many of the houses were only barely weather proof.
I think what I also take away from learning about these quilters is the sense of community that seems to permeate these works--they were created socially ( at least the quilting...the piecing was often done individually).
Thanks to the original poster here for starting this thread!

They are amazing. I will come back to this site many times. Thanks for sharing it with us. They really do have style.
peace