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| African-American influenced quilt |
Now I knew what I was looking at (a quilt) but I really wasn't seeing it. My gut was to buy it. And I did.
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| Embroidery stitches with hands |
Ever so often I would look at it asking myself questions about its configurations. I knew that it was made in the era of about 1920s to 1950s from the wool and cotton material and the hand-tying. I knew that is was all hand stitched. I knew that it had strips sewn together. But what really got me was the pattern and the hands embroidered on some of the squares.
Then one day I opened it up and I really saw it. Its asymmetrical patterns jumped out at me. Research told me it was an African-American influenced quilt.
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| Asymmetrical zig-zag stitching and vertical strips |
Since African-Americans first arrived on our shores they brought along their ancestral textile designs and religious symbols that were soon incorporated into American quilts that they made for themselves on the plantations.
The symbols once had meanings that told stories -- but over successive generations of family quilters they became lost. But, the symbols became traditional to future family quilt makers despite the missing stories.
The symbols once had meanings that told stories -- but over successive generations of family quilters they became lost. But, the symbols became traditional to future family quilt makers despite the missing stories.
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| Hands or "mojos" |
The tell-tale signs that told me this quilt was African American were: improvisation, multiple patterning, asymmetrical patterning, sewn strips, and symbols.
According to Maude Southwell Wahlman author of Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts, the symbols of red squares or hands are called "mojos" that represent protective charms in the African Kongo culture. So the hands on my quilt were protective charms but in which way? I guess that is part of the story that has been lost.
I am thrilled to have this quilt as it represents cultural ways that have survived for generations. It also tells me that culturally, past customs and traditions are probably present in all of us.
I recommend the following resources if you are interested in this subject. Ms Wahlman has done extensive research in this area and has compiled a collection of quilts and oral histories on African American quilts.
RESOURCES:
Online article
Book
Maude Southwell Wahlman
