African American Quilts

The quilters, I would love to meet/have met these ladies.....


Pearlie Posey


Sarah Mary Taylor-Pearlie Posies daughter


Mozell Benson



Jewell Allen with his log cabin quilt, Tennessee 1983


Here is a look at some quilts from a book I bought years ago and just adore.

Its called Signs and Symbols. African Images in African American Quilts, by Maude Southwell Wahlman.

Most of the quilts shown are from Maudes private collection, she has written books, exhibition catalogs and more than 30 article since 1972 on African American quilts.

As you can see, most of them are made from old clothing and flour sacks were used as linings.

To quote Mozell Benson who believes that "quilting is linked to the thrift and industry that characterize rural black Southern life.
"After I got married and had my own family (10 children), then I got into quilting because we had to have covers, people gave me pieces of material that they wern't going to use, and I could always find use for it because we had to have covers. And then a lot of times pieces would be large enough that I could make the girls a dress, the boys a shirt, and take the scraps and put them in quilts."

here are just a few of my favorites


Log Cabin quilt by Sarah Mary Taylor, Yazoo City, Mississippi 1984


Strip quilt by Catherine Somerville Alabama 1940


Log Cabin quilt by Mozell Benson, Alabama 1979



Everybody quilt by Pearlie Posey

Pearlie Posey "From a little girl I just pieced.... Everywhere I never stopped making quilts."
Pearlie made quilts for her children explaining "Then if the Lord take me and leave you... I say you'll have some covers."


Log Cabin quilt by Mozell Benson 1984