Rachel Carey George (1908–2011), My Way, 1970s (detail).
Corduroy and denim, 78 x 67 inches; Private Collection.
The daughter of Reverend William Carey, minister of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, the main congregation in Gee's Bend, Rachel Carey George (1908 - 2011), was also a member of the extended family of Delia Bennett, her mother's sister. Several of her best-known quilts were made in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, when Gee’s Bend's Wilcox County was one of the poorest in the country. Quilting In this time of scarcity called for the inventive salvaging of fabric scraps and remnants, including feed sacks, which are evident in George’s quilts from this era. In Gee's Bend, this recycling practice became the founding ethos for generations of quiltmakers who have transformed otherwise useless material into marvels of textile art.
Rachel Carey George’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Milwaukee Art Museum.
Learn more about Rachel Carey George here.
