Summer
is a time for lemonade and summer camp, ball parks and swimming - and perhaps a
visit to Grandma's house, with scrapbooks, old photos, soft quilts and other treasures
with stories. Like the quilts of Gee's Bend.
Susan Goldman Rubin celebrates The Quilts of Gee's Bend in her new picture
book filled with colorful images of the practical artistry of several
generations of women in Gee's Bend, Alabama.
In 1928, "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."
The cloth came from old work shirts, dress tails and aprons. Nettie arranged it
all into a design she called "Stacked Bricks."
“When
I was growing up, you threw nothing away,” said Nettie Young. “You found every
good spot for a quilt piece and that’s how you made your quilts.”
The
women of Gee's Bend, descended from slaves on the Pettway Plantation, have been
making quilts for generations. The quilts had a practical purpose, but they
were also beautiful works of art.
"Ought not two quilts ever be the same," explained Mensie Lee
Pettway.
"How
did the women come up with original ideas? Annie Mae Young said, ‘You find the
colors and the shapes and certain fabrics that work out right, kind of like
working a puzzle.'"
The
Gee's Bend quilts can be inspiration for young writers too, whether they are
writing at camp, in class or surrounded by trunks in Grandma's attic.
· Help children
collect a few pieces of old clothing - especially shirts or skirts that can be
cut into strips or squares. Have them
design a quilt, individually or as a group, using these pieces. Give them time
to think about their design. Then ask them to write about their designs:
o
What
do you like about the colors you put together?
o
Does
your quilt tell a story?
o
Write
a true or imaginary story about some of the fabric pieces: who wore that shirt?
Where has that dress been? In the kitchen? At a party? If possible, talk to the
person who wore a piece of clothing and then write down your
"interview."
o
If
the quilt includes pieces of cloth from your own clothing, write about
something you enjoyed doing while wearing that shirt or dress.
· Alternatively, have
children talk to an older friend or relative about some special item – a vase,
a photo, a piece of jewelry, a quilt – and then ask the child to write down
that story, like a journalist bringing another person alive with words.
If
you are feeling very ambitious, you can help youngsters make real quilt squares
and then a real quilt following the directions in Rubin's book – making their
own little piece of history.
Mensie
Lee Pettway said, “A lot of people make quilts for your bed, for to keep you
warm. But a quilt is more. It represents safekeeping, it represents beauty and
you could say it represents family history.”
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