Gee's Bend quilters help make weekend show a big success

From left, Gee's Bend quilters Louisiana Bendolph, Lucy Mingo, Ruth Kennedy and Country Patchwork Quilt Guild Show Co-Chairman Norma Jeane Ferguson of Marshall pose for a photo after the reception for the quilters Friday evening, Sept. 25, at Missouri Valley College. Ferguson worked for more than a year to secure the quilters' appearance at the guild's annual quilt show, held Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26 and 27, at Salt Fork YMCA. (Sydney Stonner/Democrat-News) [Order this photo]

The three Gee's Bend quilters were honored at a reception at Missouri Valley College Friday evening, Sept. 26.

"We are just so honored to have them here," Charity-Mika Woodward, of the college art department, said.

Norma Jeane Ferguson, co-chair of the quilt show, was responsible for getting the quilters to Marshall. After more than a year of hard work, Ferguson was somewhat overcome with emotion at the reception.

"I'm just so happy," she said with a tissue at the ready.

Matt Arnett of the arts and cultural organization Tinwood, which has helped to promote and publish works about Gee's Bend, accompanied the quilters on their trip to Marshall. He introduced the quilters to those assembled at the reception and gave a brief history of Gee's Bend.

The village, which is located on the Alabama River southwest of Selma, was formerly a cotton plantation. After the Civil War, freed slaves remained in the area and began to work their own land. During the Great Depression, the federal government bought the land and built homes for the residents, though they continued to live in rather poor and desolate conditions.

Arnett quoted one of the Gee's Bend quilters who once said, "Slavery didn't end for us until we started going on trips for our quilts."

The women made their quilts for practical reasons, using feed sacks or clothing scraps as fabric. The quilts were used as blankets or sometimes hung on the inside walls of a home as insulation against the weather.

Lucy Mingo of the Gee's Bend quilting collective signs a quilt. She and two other members of the group also signed programs and talked quilting with area quilt enthusiasts at the annual Country Patchwork Quilt Guild Show Saturday, Sept. 26, and Sunday, Sept. 27. (Eric Crump/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

"They served many functions," Arnett said about the quilts. "It happened to keep the wind out, but it also was on display on the walls."

Louisiana Bendolph, the youngest of the three quilters who came to Marshall, also spoke about the living conditions in Gee's Bend when she was growing up in the 1960s and '70s.

Bendolph worked alongside her great-grandparents and her mother in the fields for much of her youth, only attending school when it rained, she said. They grew cotton, cucumbers and squash, among other things, she said.

"I had a childhood, but I also had an adulthood when I was a child," Bendolph said.

In 2002, Bendolph's quilts were among the 70 exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. That year was uplifting and inspirational for Bendolph.

"In 2002, my life changed -- all for the better," she said.

She was motivated to devote her life to quilting, more than previously, she said. And, Bendolph realized the extent of her responsibility to the practice that she inherited from her elders.

"It wasn't just a tradition," she said. "I felt, who was I to stop it? Who was I to give up something so special?"

Although she still doesn't consider herself an artist, Bendolph has become a prolific quilter. She also makes prints and etchings, which resemble her quilts, at an art studio in California.

Ruth Kennedy was the oldest quilter at the reception. She spoke about how quilts were made when she was younger, before the quilters were "discovered."

Area quilt aficionados peruse quilts created by Gee's Bend Quilters Collective members. The Gee's Bend quilts were a special feature of the Country Patchwork Quilt Guild Show Sept. 26-27. (Eric Crump/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

"We used to go from house to house to quilt," she said.

Kennedy said the women of Gee's Bend would work together on the quilts, sewing by lamplight or firelight because there was no electricity then.

And when a quilt was worn out, it still served a purpose. It was often torn up and used as the batting layer inside new quilts, she said.

Lucy Mingo said the quilt collective at Gee's Bend operates a bit differently now. Usually quilters work on their individual quilts at home using a sewing machine.

But they all gather together Monday through Thursday each week and work to put the backing on the quilt and the batting in the middle of it. This is all done by hand.

"When I'm not quilting, I'm lonesome," Mingo said. "You sing, you pray, and we have lunch together."

For her, and many others, quilting is not just about the quilts. It's about community and fellowship as well. And now the quilt collective serves to empower the women of Gee's Bend.

"We never really had a voice" in the past, Bendolph said. She and her quilts have since journeyed across the country, speaking out about Gee's Bend.

"To me, it's not even about the quilts," Arnett said. "It's about the story. It's important that their story and this work travel far and wide."

Contact Sydney Stonner at marshallbusiness@socket.net