Editing Quilting (section)

====African-American quilts====
[[File:Harriet Powers - Pictorial quilt - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Pictorial Quilt by Harriet Powers c. 1895-98. The quilt is divided into 15 different pictorial images made with pieces of cotton.]]
There is a long tradition of African-American quilting beginning with quilts made by enslaved Africans, both for themselves and for the people who enslaved them. The style of these quilts was determined largely by time period and region, rather than race, and the documented slave-made quilts generally resemble those made by white women in their region.<ref>{{cite book |title=Facts & Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts & Slavery |last=Brackman |first=Barbara |publisher=C&T Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-57120-364-9 |location=Concord |pages=15}}</ref> After 1865 and the end of slavery in the United States, African-Americans began to develop their own distinctive style of quilting.
[[Harriet Powers]], an African American woman born into slavery, made two famous "story quilts" and was one of the many African-American [[quilter]]s who contributed to the development of quilting in the United States. This style of African-American quilts was categorized by its bright colors, organization in a strip arrangement, and asymmetrical patterns. 
[[File:Pieced Quilt, c. 1979 by Lucy Mingo, Gee's Bend, Alabama.JPG|thumb|Quilt by Lucy Mingo c. 1979]]
The first nationwide recognition of African-American quilt-making came when the [[Gee's Bend Quilters Collective|Gee's Bend]] quilting community of Alabama was celebrated in an exhibition that opened in 2002 and traveled to many museums, including the [[Smithsonian]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/geesbend.html|title=History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places – Smithsonian |work=smithsonianmag.com}}</ref> Gee's Bend is a small, isolated community of African-Americans in southern Alabama with a quilt-making tradition that goes back several generations<ref>{{cite news |title=Opinion: The Master Quilters of Gee's Bend, AL |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/opinion/quilts-while-i-yet-live.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_od_20181120&nl=op-docs&nl_art=2&nlid=72995439emc%3Dedit_od_20181120&ref=headline&te=1 |newspaper=New York Times |date = 13 November 2018|access-date=24 November 2018 |language=en|last1 = Curran|first1 = Maris}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title = World of Quilts|last = Ellis|first = Cassandra|publisher = C&T Publishing|year = 2014|isbn = 978-1-60705-953-0|location = Concord, CA|pages = 10–150}}</ref> and is characterized by pattern improvisation, multiple patterning, bright and contrasting colors, visual motion, and a lack of rules.<ref>{{cite book |title=Bold Improvisation |last=Heffley |first=Scott |publisher=Kansas City Star Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-933466-25-5 |location=Kansas City, MO |pages=4–10}}</ref> The contributions made by Harriet Powers and other [[The Quilts of Gees Bend|quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama]] have been recognized by the US Postal Service with a series of stamps.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2006/sr06_042.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606033552/http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2006/sr06_042.htm|url-status=dead|title=Quilts of Gee's Bend commemorative postage stamps|archive-date=June 6, 2011}}</ref> Many of the quilters of Gee’s Bend also participated in the [[Freedom Quilting Bee]]. A quilting co-op created by some of the African American women of [[Wilcox County, Alabama]].Some of the founding and influential members include [[Estelle Witherspoon]], [[Willie Abrams]], [[Lucy Mingo]], [[Minder Coleman|Minder Pettway Coleman]], and [[Aolar Mosely]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Callahan |first=Nancy |title=The Freedom Quilting Bee |date=1987 |publisher=The University of Alabama Press |isbn=0-8173-0310-3 |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487 |publication-date=1987}}</ref> The ''communal'' nature of the quilting process (and how it can bring together women of varied races and backgrounds) was honored in the series of stamps. Themes of community and storytelling are common themes in African-American quilts.

Beginning with the children's story ''Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt'' (1989), a legend has developed that enslaved people used quilts as a means to share and transmit secret messages to escape slavery and travel the [[Underground Railroad]]. Consensus among historians is that there is no sound basis for this belief, and no documented mention among the thousands of [[slave narratives]] or other contemporary records.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofquilts.com/underground-railroad.html|title=Underground Railroad Quilts: Documentary Evidence is Missing|website=www.historyofquilts.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.quilthistory.com/ugrrquilts.htm |title=Underground Railroad Quilt Code - Putting it in Perspective |access-date=January 23, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204013739/http://www.quilthistory.com/ugrrquilts.htm |archive-date=February 4, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.womenfolk.com/quilt_pattern_history/underground_railroad.htm|title=The Jacob's Ladder Pattern Became the Underground Railroad Quilt|website=www.womenfolk.com}}</ref>

Contemporary quilters such as [[Faith Ringgold]] utilize quilt making to tell stories and make political statements about the African-American experience. Ringgold, originally a painter, began quilting in order to stray away from Western art practices. Her famous "story quilts" utilize mixed media, painting, and quilting. One of her most famous quilts, ''Tar Beach 2'' (1990), depicts the story of a young African-American girl flying around Harlem in New York City.<ref>{{Cite web |title="Tar Beach 2" Quilt |url=https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/86892 |access-date=2022-12-09 |website=philamuseum.org |language=en}}</ref>

[[Bisa Butler]], another modern African-American quilter, celebrates Black life with her vibrant, quilted portraits of both everyday people and notable historical figures. Her quilts are now preserved in the permanent collections at the [[National Museum of African American History and Culture]], the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], and about a dozen other art museums.