I'm not in the least interested in Gee's Bend quilts, but find the story interesting, as was the Wagga Wagga quilts. Very much alike in my thinking. Thanks for posting this.

reminds me of the story of The Emperors new clothes. My mother in law made beautiful quilts out of old clothing scraps. I think workmanship should come into play somewhere.

I love the discussion on this! I am not fascinated by the Gee's bend quilts--women did what they had to do to keep their families warm. IMHO I feel most of us here on the board have lost touch with the extreme poverty these women dealt with. For this I respect their ingenuity. Is this art or survival?

The exibit is currently at our museum here in reno. I don't think that there are patterns available, but there is a book on them available to purchase. Or maybe your library has it for check out? Here is a link to see the book and to get the ubc code.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=Gee's+Bend+quilts&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=810870650842321873&ei=TLrAS4nXHZmyMb3ZuMoK&s a=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=4&v ed=0CBYQ8wIwAw#ps-sellers

Being here in South Alabama I have actually met some of the Gees Bend Quilters. What they had was a great promoter who saw a chance to make some money - and he (and his group did). They have actually profited very little.
On the other hand, there have been family members who never made a stitch in their lives before all the fame who have jumped on the bandwagon.
While I'm not all that impressed with the quilts, I am impressed with the promotion these ladies have gotten!
And the ones I have met have all been very nice and gracious...

i'm glad you said that. that's exactly what i was referring to when i said that they had been "discovered" by the artsy-fartsy crowd. promoters can sell anything. people DO buy the brooklyn bridge. and there is a flat earth society. believe me, the earth is not flat no matter what some people think.

i have no doubt that the gee's benders are great people. why not? they have nice homes, plenty to eat and notoriety. the quilts that they now make bear no resemblance to the quilts their mothers made. i'm glad they make a living. i bear them no grudge. they made warm quilts with what they had. they were masters of frugality. the original gee's benders just didn't make beautiful quilts. to say that they did demeans all of us who DO make beautiful quilts.

.

um, don't be too quick to assume that these ladies "all have nice homes" etc, it ain't necessarily true...
As I said, the promoters got lots of money....

by nice homes i mean homes with running water, electric, a toilet and a roof. more than their mamas had. or my aunt for that matter. she had a well and an outhouse. they buy their blankets, i'm sure, and have shoes. and they have enough to eat. so there is some consistency in their lives that their parents didn't have.

I would like to formally welcome you, the original poster, to the world of quilting! I hope your classwork has been as rewarding for you as it is for those of us that communicate via this forum.

I also hope you have taken some time to view the many topics available and see the diversity that exists among all of us.

Could you let us know how your quilt progresses, maybe even pictures? If you can spare a bit more time, here is a website link to something about the Waga quilts of Australia that were mentioned earlier.
http://wrap-wagga.blogspot.com/

We had a "Gees Bend Quilt Show" at our little museum a couple of years ago. None of the traditional quilts were shown, all were for sale. They were made with new fabrics and patterns (not period). The quilting was by hand but very poorly done, not primitive, but poorly. The (mostly) women of Gees Bend were paid (little) to produce a lot of quilts for the company that did the shows. The prices were outrageous, several hundred dollars for simple lap size quilts and wall hangings with little charm. There were some nicely done quilts, but most were obviously quickly and poorly done.

I think the original quilts are fabulous pieces of history and certainly need to be maintained. I would be willing to pay the prices for quilts made with period fabrics and the same artistic quality of the original quilts for which they are known. I find it offensive that companies would take advantage of groups of people just because they have a recognizable name.