Lucy T. Pettway (1921–2004), "Housetop" and "Bricklayer" blocks with bars, c. 1955
Cotton, corduroy, cotton knit, flannel, even weave, 90 x 78 in.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Each workday as Lucy T. Pettway walked to and from the fields, she carried a pencil and paper in her pocket to sketch ideas that came to her from observations. In the mid-l950s, she created an extraordinary block-and-strip quilt that presented an almost literal map of a section of the old Pettway community. At the top is the large plantation house. Beneath it are four field-workers’ cabins, each with a slightly different architectural configuration and strips that denote dirt roads and paths. On one side is a representation of the fields and their variety of crops, and on the other, the Alabama River. Not one of this unique quilt’s parts is out of the ordinary: each is a basic design element from traditional Gee’s Bend quilts—“Housetop,” “Bricklayer,” and “Lazy Gal” (a simple quilt of parallel stripes).
These images show the entirety of the quilts, including their handmade edges, against a white background.
