Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee's Bend Quilt

by Lisa Gail Collins

In 1942 Missouri Pettway, newly suffering the loss of her husband, pieced together a quilt out of his old, worn work clothes. Nearly six decades later her daughter Arlonzia Pettway, approaching eighty at the time and a seasoned quiltmaker herself, readily recalled the cover made by her grieving mother within the small African American farming community of Gee's Bend, Alabama.

At once a story of grief, a quilt, and a community, Stitching Love and Loss connects Missouri Pettway's cotton covering to the history of a place, its residents, and the work of mourning. Interpreting varied sources of history and memory, Lisa Gail Collins engages crucial and enduring questions, simultaneously singular and What are the languages, practices, and processes of mourning? How is loss expressed and remembered? What are the roles for creativity in grief? And how might a closely crafted material object, in its conception, construction, use, and memory, serve the work of grieving a loved one? Placing this singular quilt within its historical and cultural context, Collins illuminates the perseverance and creativity of the African American women quilters in this rural Black Belt community.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Art

200 pages, Hardcover

Published June 6, 2023

Reviews

[Lisa Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving account of the role of quilting in the mourning process of an Alabama woman. Collins weaves together a well-researched discussion of the role of quilting in African American history, a family's story of loss, and a rich examination of a small African American farming community in Gee's Bend, Alabama. The book has lessons for all of us about the importance of creativity, ritual, and community in coping with grief. This book amazed me and changed me.

[Erika DeVries · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gift of a book and loving tribute. The author draws the connections between the inner resilience, resource, care and spirit of the women of Gee's bend, their ancestral lineage both past and future, and how these all combine into the material world of quilts & quilt making . I have benefitted in so many ways from reading this book, and I believe you will too.

[Joan Padgitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book! The quilters of Gee's Bend (Boyton), Alabama are bad ass! I enjoyed this 130 page read.