Delia Bennett

Delia Bennett (1892–1976), "Housetop"—Fractured-Medallion variation, c. 1955

Cotton, 79 x 79 in.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum purchase and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation

Delia Bennett was the matriarch of an extended family of quiltmakers that includes her daughters Creola B. Pettway, Georgiana Pettway, and Ella Mae Irby. Her granddaughters Mary L. Bennett, Linda Diane Bennett, Stella Mae Pettway, Marlene Bennett, and many others continued the tradition. Perhaps Delia's most engaging quilt is a "Housetop" variation some call "Pig in a Pen," pieced mainly from wonderfully mismatched pale pink, brown, and deep green fabrics. The jarring chromatic disjunctions are reinforced by the fact that the concentric strips are sometimes aligned and sometimes not.

These images show the entirety of the quilts, including their handmade edges, against a white background.