Twentieth Century Life in these Houses: African Influence in Quilts

African Influence in Quilts

Home

Pictorial Record - Master Index

Online Tour of Ms. Catherine's

Educational Resources

Information for the Public

Figure 44: African influence in quilts

In her book, Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts, Maude Southwell Wahlman explains the African-American tradition of piecing cloth into long narrow strips which are then sewn together to make quilt tops. She also writes about West Africans weaving long narrow strips of cloth that are sewed together to form larger pieces of fabric--a tradition so old that it has “moved into the realm of aesthetic preference.” (Maude Southwell Wahlman, African Images in African-American Quilts [New York: Studio Books in association with Museum of American Folk Art, 1993], 25.)