(above) AfroModern is an artistic style, the newest among African American quilting traditions.
Black History Month Quilts
Submitted by Lisa Shepard Stewart
As the colder temperatures settle in, February is generally a great time of year to explore the art of quilting, known by some as the world’s greatest indoor sport! And since February is also designated as Black History Month, celebrating African American culture through quilting makes perfect sense, beginning with a brief overview of some prominent traditions:
Underground Railroad Quilts – Quilts were stitched by the enslaved as well as abolitionists as a method of communication along the Underground Railroad routes. Specific blocks suggested the best routes, warnings, and safe houses providing food, clothing and shelter along the way. Once stitched, the coded quilts were hung from windows of slave cabins, acting as secret maps for those who escaped to make the dangerous trek northward, from slavery to freedom.
Gees Bend Quilts – The women of Gee’s Bend, a small, remote, black community in Alabama, have created hundreds of quilt masterpieces dating from the early twentieth century to the present. The seven hundred or so inhabitants of this small, rural community are mostly descendants of enslaved Africans. Quiltmakers there have produced patchwork masterpieces beginning as far back as the mid-nineteenth century, with the oldest existing examples dating from the 1920s. The overall “Gee’s Bend style” can best be described as artistic and improvisational, enlivened by a visual imagination that extends the expressive boundaries of the quilt genre.
Today, African American quilting styles vary as much as the quilters themselves, from traditional blocks and fabrics to gallery-bound art quilts to mixed-media masterpieces. One of the most exciting contemporary styles to emerge recently is known as “AfroModern”, rooted in part on the growing interest in African fabric prints throughout fashion and pop culture. Carole Lyles Shaw is an author, quilt artist and designer who actually coined the term. She travels the country to lecture and teach AfroModern techniques to quilting enthusiasts of all backgrounds. She will come to Rahway to teach a weekend-long Master class in May, sponsored by Cultured Expressions Sewing & Quilting Studio in Rahway. For details call 866-MUDCLOTH (866-683-2568) or visit the studio at 1417 Main Street.
(above) The log cabin block indicated a safe house along the Underground Railroad.
