CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/20/2021

In 'Fabric of a Nation,' quilts "unlike any other in the world"

Made around 1955, this Bricklayer or Courthouse Steps quilt from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, is reproduced from Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories, the highly anticipated new release from MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Published in advance of a major Fall 2021 exhibition, this volume spans 400 years of quilt-making by Americans of European, African, Native and Hispanic heritage, with a focus on 58 quilts “unlike any other in the world,” to quote Alice Walker. This particular quilt was probably made by Creola Bennett Pettway in the mid-1950s. “A sophisticated arrangement of red and white cotton strips, its color blocks form a dynamic hourglass shape in a minimalist composition that would rival any abstract painting. Typical of Gee’s Bend, Creola Pettway came from a long line of prolific quilt makers including her mother, Delia Bennett. Steeped in quilt making from an early age, Creola remembered her mother had four quilt frames and encouraged her daughters to help with quilting the corners. Later, as a master quilter herself, Creola took pride in the free-form creativity required to compose her works, recalling that she would ‘decide in my mind the way I want that quilt. When I decide the way I want it, I can make it. You can do things out of your head.’”

Court House Steps quilt. Probably by Creola Bennett Pettway (American, 1927–2015) or possibly by Georgianna Bennett Pettway (American, died in 2012). Alabama, 1950s. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Heritage Fund for a Diverse Collection, 2014.2049. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.