Within the last 20 years, I have run across a number of people who have tried to formulate a list of characteristics of African-American quilts. In one instant, a (white) woman with a quilt shop, instituted classes to teach others how to make an African-American quilt. The quilt would be brightly colored and asymmetrical. She’d made a large quilt that hung on the shop’s wall to use as an example. Just for the record, more recently, I ran across a speaker who attempted to describe the qualities of African-American quilts as if they are homogeneous.

For some time now, folklorists, scholars, and dreamers have been trying to define and describe exactly what an African-American quilt is, and what meaning(s) the quilt had, for its maker. The trouble with that kind of study is that not all African-American quilts are created equal, any more than are English quilts, or Amish quilts, or Dutch quilts. Women, who have made the majority of old quilts, have enjoyed being just a little different than their neighbor. For pieced quilts, this may be the reason so many thousands of different quilt block configurations exist.

More theories are in place than fleas on a dog. Most of them are not backed up by fact. Rather, they are just hunches, opinions, or broad, unsubstantiated conclusions.

“Myth and Methodology: Shelly Zegart Unpicks African-American Quilt Scholarship,” is an article that was first published in viagra amazon, an international textile magazine, (London England: Issue 21, Jan/Feb 2008). The author provides an historical account of the names and thoughts of various people who have studied this subject and published their train of thought. This file is free to read/ and to download, on .

Without further adieu, I will leave you to access this important file, one worth your time.

Patricia Cummings

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